The Leaves Of Konoha
by Halfbreed741
Summary: A bond closer than friendship formed amoung the leaf nins. Sakura finds herself stuck with the Akatsuki, and her memories threatened by a certain Uchiha. Can she reunite with the ones she love, or will her memories alter her own heart's decision? SxSxI
1. Chapter 1

**AN: I don't own Naruto….PS, all of the shinobi are suppose to be around 21-22 years old. **

**Chapter 1 - All Apart**

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"It's been six years Shizune, and they still didn't come back. Ever since that last battle with Orochimaru, and the Akatsuki, they disappeared. Do you think they're still alive out there somewhere? Or Am I just being a fool?" The fifth hokage said as she rested her chin over her laced fingers.

After failing to get Sasuke back, Naruto and the others worked hard to grow stronger. Naruto trained days on end mastering his wind element and new jutsu, as Sakura continued to train with the Hokage. Many loses took place in the fast paced training. Asuma was killed by Hidan, an Akatsuki member, which brought team ten to work with team seven to great heights. Gai's, and Kurenai's team paid the other teams visits as well. The relationship between the leaf nins grew from comrades to something like a family. It was when Orochimaru and a couple members of the Akatsuki attacked the young nins, that they were separated from each other…for too many years.

"Tsunade-sama. I'm sure that those eight are still alive out there." Shizune said with strong hope.

"But Naruto was even one of the ones that didn't come back."

"Tsunade-sama…"

"Maybe one last search won't hurt. This time…We'll look in the Sound Country."

**Ramen Shack**

The small noodle shack was silent and lonely since their number one customer vanished years ago. To most people it held dear pleasant memories, while others, just a painful reminder.

Sai, one of the last remaining members of the famous team seven sat alone on one of the stools staring at the cold bowl of noodles in front of him. He remembered the battle as scenes replayed in his mind. He only wished he could go back and redo some of his actions, but he knew that, that wouldn't do anything now.

"Hey, what are you doing here, Sai?" Choji asked as he sat down next to the lonely nin. "One miso ramen."

"Got it." Said the chef.

"Nothing." Sai responded with one of his fake smiles.

"Hey you guys, Tsunade wants to see us!" Kiba called out with Akamaru and Neji by his side.

"But I just ordered." Choji said as his ramen was set in front of him.

"Get it to go! Come on." Kiba said as he jumped onto Akamaru's back and dashed off toward the hokage tower.

**Tsunade's Office**

"Neji, Sai, Kiba, and Choji. I have decided for one last search for our missing nins." Tsunade said. Tsunade expected them to look determined, but what she saw was hopelessness.

"Hokage-sama." Neji said as he looked directly at her. "It's been years since we had any sort of proof that they're even alive. They're gone. We have to…accept that." The byakugan user said with some difficulty.

"Doesn't mean we can keep trying!" Shizune said. The four jounins looked at her.

"Nonetheless, this is your mission. After this…if nothing is found, then we will write their names on the memorial stone." Tsunade said as he gaze faltered toward the window. "Now for the briefing."

**Sound Country**

"Kuso!" A tall lean blond nin yelled out as he slammed his fist against the wall. "We were so close!" He leaned his head against the wall as he tried to suppress his anger.

"Naruto, calm down." A woman with dark brown hair tied in a bun said. "That snake might give us more days of confinement if you act up."

"What does it matter Tenten? It's going to be another month in the dark." A tall blond woman said as she lay against the wall.

"Ino, we can't let this get to us." Tenten said as she sat down on the cold stone floor.

"We should have known that Orochimaru would send Kabuto to watch us during our mission." A man wearing sunglasses and a hood said.

"Well, Shino, we have a whole month to think of another plan." Tenten said with mock cheer.

"I don't know why that teme would leave Konoha for this." Naruto said as he finally cooled down.

"I suppose that's why Sasuke-kun left this place before we even got captured. Which brought Orochimaru to attack Leaf Village, thinking he was there." Ino said.

"Don't forget attracting the Akatsuki because the Sound's attack would give them an opening to attack us themselves." Shino said.

"I wonder how Sakura-chan, Hinata-chan, and the others are doing?" Naruto said.

"Probably still in the village." Ino said. "Lucky bastards."

**Akatsuki Compound**

"Sakura-chan, we need to get ready for our next mission." A white eyed woman with long black hair said as she entered the hospital wing.

"Hai, Hinata-chan. Did you tell Lee-san and Shikamaru?" Sakura asked as she put on her Akatsuki cloak.

"I'll get them right now."

"Ok, see you in the meeting room." With that, Hinata exited the room and went down the hallway. When Sakura was sure no one was around she ran over to the medicine cabinet and took out four vials of clear liquid. She carefully paced them in her kunai pouch as ran out of the hospital wing.

When Sakura got to the meeting room, she looked around to find her friends in the corner.

"Over here Sakura, and hurry up." The lazy jounin said as he sat down on the floor.

"Hey Sakura-san." Lee said as he gave her a thumbs up.

"Hi Lee-san." Sakura said. "So Shikamaru, do you know what the meeting's about?"

"Something troublesome I bet." Shikamaru said as he looked straight ahead.

"Maybe it will be close to ho-" but Hinata stopped in mid-sentence and looked to the floor.

"Huh? Hinata-chan, what's wrong?" Sakura asked as she turned around to where her friend was staring. Near the entrance Sakura had come from, a tall man with black hair tied in a pony tail walked in toward the center of the room. A large blue man accompanied him, and he held a large bandaged sword on his back. "Itachi." Sakura muttered through gritted teeth.

"If he's here, then this must be something big." Lee whispered to his companions. The other three seemed to agree.

"Sakura!" A man with tied blond hair called out as he approached the group. He blew away his bangs from his eyes as he stood next to the pink haired medic nin.

"Hi Deidara-san." Sakura said with a smile. Out of all the Akatsui members, Deidara seemed to be the friendliest of the group. After years of being held captive , Sakura and the rest developed some kind of friendship with the clay artist.

"Let's get this going already!" The tall blue man called out. Everyone in the room fell silent.

"Don't have to be so loud Kisame, yeah." Deidara said.

"We're setting the mission in sound. Two groups will be dispatched, one to go into the heart of the country's capital, and the other as back up." A man with what looked like venus fly trap growing from his head said, "First group, Kisame, Lee, Hinata, Shikamaru. Second group, Sakura, Deidara, and Itachi."

The three leaf nins looked at Sakura to see her expression of disbelief. Deidara, she was fine with, but she always had a problem with Sasuke's elder brother. Even if she sees him almost once every week for his weekly sessions to heal his eyes, she didn't feel comfortable around him. She couldn't for six years and counting. She just guessed that it was probably because she was still loyal to her other teammates.

"You know your mission, get a move on." A man with a cloth covering most of his face said.

"Just shut it Kazuku, yeah." Deidara called out as everyone started to leave in their groups.

"Be careful you guys." Sakura said as she hugged each one of them. At the same time she slipped each one of the small vials into their kunai pouches.

"You too." The three told her.

"I tell you if we run into any signs of you know who." Hinata said secretly to Sakura.

"Thanks." Sakura said. Everyone believed she was over the young Uchiha, and so did she, but nonetheless she still care for him, and wanted to bring him back to Konoha.

She exchanged glances with Shikamaru before they left. As if they were talking to each other telepathically, Shikamaru knew what the contents the small vials were.

"Let's go, Sakura." Deidara said as he walked next to her, Itachi way ahead of them.

_"Naruto, Kakashi, Sai…I wonder what you guys are doing right now. Probably having fun and eating at Ichiraku's I suppose." _Sakura thought as she and Deidara followed Itachi to Sound country.

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**AN: Well, just started on a new story, Whoooooo! So, what do you think of the beginning? Hopefully you aren't printing it out and burning it because you're a nut……lol, well…now for ch.2! **


	2. Chapter 2

**AN: I don't own Naruto…. **

**Chapter 2 - Finding One Another !  
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**Sound**

"Hmph. It seems that Orochimaru-sama will let you four out early." Kabuto said as he unlocked the heavy metal door that contained the leaf nins. "So in other words…" Tenten said. "It's up to us to save your asses huh?" Ino said as she stepped out of the dark room first. She placed a hand over her eyes until she adjusted to the lighting. Kabuto merely glared at her until the other three stepped out. "Go see Orochimaru-sama in the meeting room." Kabuto ordered. The four did what they were ordered. Naruto's shoulder _accidentally_ smacked into Kabuto's which caught the sound nin off balance. "Get out of my way." Naruto muttered as he continued on. It took all of Kabuto's will power not to tear every muscle in the blond nin's body from the inside out.

**In the forest**

"Well, we should be in Sound in about a day." Kiba said as he got ready to go to sleep. The small campfire in the center of the camp began to disintegrate as cold winds brushed past the small group of nins.

"I'm hungry." Choji said as he reached into his pack to find his favorite back of chips.

"You're eating now?" Neji asked.

"Of course." Choji said happily as he ate some of the dried potato slices.

"You truly are a fa-" but Sai was stopped by Neji, Kiba and Akamaru. Kiba and Neji placed a hand in front of Sai's mouth, and Akamaru literally body slammed the raven haired shinobi.

"Mind you that I won't have this team kill each other Sai." Neji said as he removed his hand away from Sai's mouth. Kiba did the same, and Akamaru got off the nin.

**Akatsuki**

"Um….Uh, Ki-Kisame-san. What is our mission exactly?" Hinata asked as they walked through a wheat plain.

"It's an in-and-out job. Kill Orochimaru, and leave no evidence." The shark nin replied.

"Well at least it's something we won't have a problem with." Shikamaru said.

"Killing him won't be so easy." Lee said sternly.

"I meant morally. How troublesome." Shikamaru said.

_"At least this might help Sakura-chan, and Naruto-kun….Naruto-kun." _Hinata thought as she remembered the days when everyone had a smile on their face.

**Akatsuki group 2**

"Deidara?" Sakura asked as she and the Akatsuki member sat next to the small fire they built. Itachi left long ago to scout the area.

"What is it?" Deidara asked.

"What's the real reason we're all going to Sound? That killing Orochimaru crap doesn't make any logical sense."

"I don't know wh-"

"Just forget it. If you're not going to tell me, I'll find out eventually." Sakura said cutting the clay artist off. _"Why would they get two different groups for the same target, and take completely different routes? It wouldn't take all of us to kill that snake. So then, they must want to get something from Orochimaru. But what?" _Sakura thought as she tried to put all the pieces together. _"No…Not for Sasuke-kun. The last thing Itachi would want is to stop him from getting stronger."_ Sakura sighed in defeat. _"I'll have to think on this when I have more information." _

"You should go to sleep." Deidara suggested.

"Yeah, but what about-" but Sakura didn't finish her sentence when she saw Itachi approach their small camp.

"Sleep." Itachi said, to Sakura, it was more like a command. Nonetheless, she just laid down against a tree trunk and stared off into the night sky. The site of the stars took her back to when she and her old team would just have fun under the very sky that she was staring into. She felt a small pang of loneliness grab her heart as she thought about all that had come to pass over the years. Kakashi drifted off as he became an Anbu again, there were still no signs of Sasuke's existence, the last time she saw Naruto and Sai was in the battle in Konoha, and she was betraying Sasuke by helping his brother. With these thoughts and more, Sakura found it impossible to sleep. She got up and went to go for a walk. Knowing that she had no chance of escaping the two Akatsuki members, she made sure she was close enough for the two to sense her charka.

**Sound**

"So you want us to protect you?" Shino said in an irritated tone.

"Why the hell would I protect a son of a- GAHHH!" Naruto said. Orochimaru smirked as the kyuubi vessel laid on the floor clenching his stomach.

"Naruto!" the three leaf nins said.

"You ok?" Ino said as she and Tenten helped him up.

"You cheap snake." Naruto muttered.

"Continue with that attitude of yours, and I'll make sure the Kyuubi is brought out." Orochimaru said. Naruto and the others glared at him. "It would be a shame for your little friends to die by your uncontrollable hands."

**Akatsuki group 2**

_"It's been a while since I just relaxed like this."_ Sakura thought as she laid down in the grass. "…I wish you never left." She whispered.

"Why aren't you sleeping?" Someone asked as he approached the pink haired kunoichi.

"I should be asking the same thing, Itachi." Sakura said without looking in his direction. Itachi stopped right in front of her. Sakura just let out a frustrated sigh. "Can't I just have a couple of minutes to myself?"

"…No."

"…Fine." Sakura said after a while. _"Jackass."_ The kunoichi patted herself off and was about to head to camp, but Itachi stood in her way."What is it?" she asked.

"It's been one week."

"…Oh, right." Sakura said as she told him to lay down. "You know your eyes couldn't have gotten any worse in a week." Itachi just gave her a look that she read as 'just do your job damnit, or else'.

Sakura hated these check ups, but that was one of the only reasons why she and the others were still alive in the Akatsuki. She had to put up with saving and helping one of the biggest threats to Konoha to protect her comrades. Especially Lee. Hinata, and Shikamaru both had their own special contributions to Akatsuki. Hinata with her charka sealing abilities, and Shikamaru's genius. Sakura still wished Lee allowed himself to escape when he had the chance, but like the gentleman he was, he wouldn't allow Sakura to get taken away without a fight. Every week she was reminded of this unwritten deal as she maintained Itachi's clear eyesight.

Though on the other hand, she was finally able to get a chance to see the advanced version of the sharingan up close. She also learned how much charka the mangekyou drained. Like Itachi, Kakashi might be having the same problem with his eyesight. Hopefully, Sakura would be able to escape and give her old sensei the same treatment she was giving to Itachi.

"Activate your mangekyou." Sakura ordered as she checked his vision. She knelt beside him and placed one hand on his temple, and the other over his eyes. Itachi did what she asked and activated his bloodline. Sakura finally finished his check up a half an hour later.

"Like I thought, there's nothing wrong." Sakura said. She wiped some sweat off with the side of her hand as she stood up. Itachi stood up too, not even giving the kunochi any sort of gratitude. _"I waste over a fourth of my charka and I don't even get a freaken thank you?"_ the kunoichi thought angrily. "You're welcome." Sakura muttered sarcastically, as she started walking back into the forest. _"What a j-" _but Sakura's thoughts were cut off when Itachi placed both his hands on her shoulders.

"W-what are you-"

"Thank you…Sakura." Itachi whispered into her ear. Sakura froze on the spot as she felt shivers run down her spine. She could feel Itachi's warm breath brush against her neck. _"Move damnit!"_ She said to herself, but her body wouldn't listen. "Go get some sleep now." Itachi said before leaving the kunochi in a state of confusion. Sakura didn't need to look at herself in a mirror to see that she was completely red in the face.

**Konoha nins**

"Finally…" Kiba said as he and the rest looked over the horizon. The team of four, and Akamaru, stood on top of a cliff gazing at the wide open fields.

"For Sound Country, this place looks peaceful." Sai said as he took out a small piece of paper, as looked at it with sad eyes.

"Ok let's get a move on." Neji ordered as he and Sai raced down the cliff side.

"Let's find our friends Akamaru!" Kiba called out as he rode on the large canine's back.

"Ino, Shikamaru…You two better be here." Choji muttered before applying charka to his feet and running down the cliff to catch up with the others.

**Sound**

"Naruto…Naruto…Hey baka, your shifts over, it's my turn to look after the bastard." Ino said as she shook the blond awake.

Rubbing his eyes and shaking his head a little, the kyuubi vessel was fully conscious by the time he stood up to let Ino take his place.

"Naruto." Ino whispered.

"Hm?"

"Tenten and Shino need to talk to you." Ino said with a low, but serious tone.

"About wha-"

"Stop messing around when guarding Orochimaru-sama." Kabuto said as he approached to two.

"Go tell some other nins who actually give a crap." Naruto said.

"You shouldn't be talking, since if he dies, that curse he gave you will kill you as well." Kabuto said with a glare.

"Well you know what?!" Naruto said as he grabbed the collar of the sound nin's shirt.

"Naruto, stop!" Ino said as she broke his grip on Kabuto. Naruto and Kabuto both glared at each other before separating in different direction. _"Dear Kami…Sakura, Hinata-chan, maybe if you guys were here, Naruto wouldn't have changed like this."_

As Naruto entered the compound he met Tenten and Shino right inside. After making sure no one was around, they began their discussion.

"Ino said that-" Naruto began.

"Yeah, Naruto…I, I mean we were thinking if, if-" Tenten beagan.

"If one of us should go try escaping and get help." Shino said.

**Akatsuki group 1**

"Hinata, scan the area." Kisame commanded.

"Hai." Hinata said as she activated her byakugan. "T-the hideout is only a mile away in the southeast K-kisame-san." Hinata deactivated her blood line, but her eyes were still wide as though she had just seen a ghost.

"Good. Itachi's group should be around this distance away from Orochimaru's hideout as well. Let's go get this over with." The large blue shark nin jumped in a fast pace as the other three nins followed him.

"Hinata-chan, what's wrong, what did you see?" Lee asked.

"I think it's who did you see?" Shikamaru corrected.

"N-neji-nii-san." Hinata muttered, as tears filled her silver eyes.

**Akatsuki group 2**

"Lunch is almost ready!" Sakura called out. In the distance, Deidara yelled out a 'Ok.' Itachi was kami knows where.

Seeing that Deidara was a good distance away, she opened her kunai pouch and pulled out the vial with the clear liquid. She carefully unscrewed the top and retrieved the three cooking fish that hung over the fire on separate sticks. She slid of two of the fish and dipped the ends of the sticks in the clear liquid_. "An invisible, odorless, tasteless poison that dies quicker than rubbing alchol." _Sakura thought. _"The affects of this poison should be similar to when Sasuke-kun was in that sleeping state Itachi gave him by the mangekyou, but unlike that sharingan, this drains all of your charka and can't kill you." _She put the sticks back into the still cooking fish and placed them back over the fire. She then carefully screwed the top back onto the vial. She then tucked the small bottle into her kunai pouch. _"Even if the poison does dry fast, the area of which it was stained would remain on the item for an entire day. With the fire bringing out the fish's natural oil, the oil should come in contact with the poison and put those two to sleep in a matter of seconds."_

"Sakura! It smells great!" Deidara said as he sat by her. Itachi came back as well. Sakura avoided looking at him since that time he acted strangely.

"Eat up." Sakura said as she carefully chose the cooked fish on the far left. Both Deidara and Itachi took the other fish and started eating.

"Even if this is just fish, it tastes a hell lot better than how Kisame makes them, ye..yea…yeahhhh." Deidara said as he fell over backwards.

"Deidara!" Sakura said in fake panic. Itachi started coughing as he held his throat.

"You!" Itachi said as he suddenly gripped onto Sakura's neck. The black commas in his sharingan spun as Sakura started to choke, despeartely trying to release his powerful grip. Eventually the Akatsuki member's hold loosened as he fell to the floor. Sakura fell to her knees trying to catch her breath.

"If…I knew he would have…that much strength left, I would've…gave him the whole damn vile." Sakura said as she held a kunai in her hand. "I can get rid of him now…I can kill the Uchiha Itachi right now…" as realization came into play Sakura suddenly couldn't believe that it could be so easy. "Sasuke-kun…Forgive me." Sakura said as she raised the kunai above Itachi's head. Beads of sweat streamed down from the side of her face as the kunai in her hand started shaking. _**"Thank you…Sakura." …. "Go get some sleep now."** _Sakura remembered Itachi say as he whispered into her ear the night before. _"Why the hell would I think of that now?"_ Sakura asked herself. She shook her head before tightening her grip on the kunai. Out of nowhere, Sakura felt a huge wave of charka in the distance. _"What in the hell?" _Sakura went to take a better look as she climbed up a tall oak tree. There she saw explosions of all kinds. The trees in the middle of the explosion seemed to dissolve.

"A genjutsu." Sakura muttered as she saw Orochimaru's hideout come into focus. Sakura concentrated her charka and used it as a radar to track other charka signatures nearby. Unfortunately, some of them were coming her way fast. "Shit!" Sakura said as she jumped down from the tree and put out the fire. She had to get away now if she wanted to get away from whoever was coming. Sakura ran toward the hideout as a group of four nins approached the small camp site.

"That's weird, I swear I smelled someone familiar here, and there were three people. Right Akamaru." Kiba said as he looked down at the dead fire wood. Akamaru barked in agreement as he sniffed the floor. The large canine started to whine. "I know, it's so weird huh buddy? I can't remember who's scent this is either."

"Not surprising. I didn't see anyone her with my byakugan." Neji said as he deactivated his blood line.

"We should head to the hideout, it looks like the Akatsuki are after Orochimaru as well." Sai said as he gripped the piece of paper tightly.

"That should make our mission easier." Choji said.

"Not that easy." Sai said as his grip loosened. The three nins looked at their comrade questionably. Sai just gave them one of his smiles. "Let's hurry up and go." Ignoring Sai's strange-r attitude, they left toward the explosions.

_"Damn Akatsuki. You're going to pay for what you've done to my friends."_ Sai thought as he gripped onto the picture of him and team seven in his hand.

**AN: Okay second chapter's here…..yay! Sorry if it seems rushed, my mom's having PMS and she doesn't like it when I'm typing any Naruto stories… "Yes Mom! I have a life now leave me aloooooonnnneeee!!!!!"**


	3. Chapter 3

**AN: I don't own Naruto…. **

**Chapter 3 - Close Encounters!**

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**Sound**

"You stay with Orochimaru-sama!" Kabuto said as he glared at Naruto. Naruto returned his glare as he went back near the compound. Tenten, Ino and Shino were inside when Naruto showed up.

"Tenten, who the hell's attacking us?!" Ino called out as she saw elite sound nins run outside.

"Akatsuki." Shino said answering for Ino.

"How many?" Naruto asked.

"Four."

"Shit."

"This might give us a chance though." Tenten said.

"For what?" Naruto asked.

"For one of us to leave and get help you baka! I thought we got that plan over with." Ino said.

"Naruto, I'm sorry but, you'll have to stay within Orochimaru's vision." Shino said.

Naruto just looked down and gritted his teeth. "If you're gone, he'll get suspicious and use the seal to leave you paralyzed."

"Yeah, so I vote for Tenten to go!" Ino suggested.

"Whaaaa?" Tenten said.

"I agree." Shino said.

"But-"

"Tenten, just go." Naruto said with a smile.

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"Lee-san!" Hinata called out as a sound nin came from behind him. Lee just did a round-house kick and knocked the nin unconscious.

"Oi, Shikamaru, where's Kisame!" Lee called out as he regrouped with the other leaf nins.

"He went inside to get the target. Our job is simply to keep these morons occupied. Troublesome bastards." Shikamaru said as he got a group of nins in his shadow jutsu. _"What could Neji be doing here?" _Shikamaru thought as he threw a set of kunai's at the sound nins.

_"Where are you Sakura-chan?" _Hinata thought worryingly.

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Neji and his team finally reached all the commotion, and was greeted by some sound nins.

"We have to get closer." Sai said as he engulfed some nins in ink.

"No problem!" Choji said as his body inflated into a large ball. Choji rolled with alarming speed straight through the sound nins. Kiba, Neji, and Sai followed close behind.

They were at the compound now, it was then Akamaru barked something to Kiba. "Neji…Is th-that who I think it is?" Kiba said as he looked down from a hill.

"Hinata-san…" Neji said as he saw his cousin staring at him in an Akatsuki robe.

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_"I have to get Hinata-chan and the others out of here now!" _Sakura thought as she raced through the forests. _"Screw this robe!" _She unzipped the robe and discarded it in the nearest bush. She thought about what could of happened to Deidara and Itachi when she left them. Were they killed by the nins that were coming? She felt bad about endangering Deidara, because he had only been just a friend since she was taken into the Akatsuki. Itachi wasn't a friend nor an enemy. Well sure he was an enemy of Konoha, but in the time that she and the others were there, he didn't do anything to them. But that still didn't stop her from hating him. Hinata was scared of him. Lee thought he was a great challenge, and Shikamaru thought…Well he thought he was troublesome. If she never knew him, or what he had done to her teammates, she could of actually consider being friends with the guy. Too bad he was a psychotic genius!

Sakura continued on her way when she found herself within the battle grounds. A couple of sound nins spotted her. She didn't have her Akatsuki clothes on, or a sound uniform, but they attacked her anyhow.

_"Che, this should be easy." _Sakura thought as she slipped on her black gloves.

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"I can't believe she knocked us out back there, yeah." Deidara said as he ran by Itachi. Itachi didn't answer, and Deidara guessed he was pissed off. "But you got to admit, she got us both good, especially you, yeah." Deidara said a little jokingly. Itachi just glared at him with his mangekyou sharingan. Deidara just played it safe, and shut up.

"After we get our target, and Kisame gets his, the kunoichi and her friends will be punished." Itachi said as he ran into Orochimaru's compound.

Deidara just sighed. "Poor Sakura."

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Naruto and the others watched sound shinobi being flung in every direction as they saw one man come through. Immediately,Kabuto went to warn Orochimaru of the Akatsuki's arrival.

_"It was suppose to be just some leaf anbu!" _Kabuto thought.

"Naruto! It's Kisame!" Ino called out just before she was kicked in the stomach.

"Ino!" Shino called out as he rushed to her aid.

"Damn you!" Naruto called out as he ran forward. He made two shadow clones behind him and had each of them form the rasengan on both hands. He dismissed the clones and added his wind element into both rasengans. Kisame just looked at the kyuubi container and smirked.

The Akatsuki member got ready for the incoming attack as he tightened his grip on his samehada. Naruto was now in attacking range. Kisame was about to bring his sword down, but found himself suddenly immobile.

"Shit." Kisame cursed as she found the blond kunoichi he kicked earlier holding both arms in a lock. His sword and legs were held down by a mass of insects as well.

"Fuuton Rasengan!" Naruto called out as he trusted both swirling jutsus at the shark looking nin. The attack barely grazed Kisame's chest as Naruto was kicked to the side.

_"What the fuck!" _Naruto thought before he retracted his rasengans before it could hit the ground. Naruto flew to the side and finally slid to a stop. Naruto held his side in pain, guessing that one of his ribs were broken. He looked back to where Kisamewas suppost to be held, but instead found three Akatsuki members. One was fighting with Shino, Ino slowly slumped to the floor unconscious.

"NO, INO!" Naruto yelled. As he rushed at the elder Uchiha. Hoping to kami that he didn't use his mangekyou on her. Itachi simply caught Naruto's punch and twisted his fist to the right, causing Naruto's entire body to turn as well. In mid air, Naruto watched Shino fly backwards from an explosion. _"We're going to be killed…" _Naruto thought as his body slammed on the ground. He cursed Orochimaru from preventing them to train properly for the past six years. It was hard for him to admit, but he, Ino, Shino, and Tenten have become weak compared to everyone else.

Before he knew it, Naruto's shoulder was stabbed through with Kisame's large samehada.

"Gaaaahhhhh!" Naruto screamed in agony as the sucked out his chakra. He immediately felt weaker by the second as he noticed the small puddle of blood spewing from his shoulder. Naruto had a hard time holding in his screams as Kisame twisted his sword left and right. The blond nin felt the bones in his shoulder dislocating and braking from the turning motion.

"Gahhhhh!!!" Naruto screamed. Itachi just walkedover to him and lookedhimin the eyes.

"You're coming with us kyuubi." Itachi said as his mangekyou spun.

"Na-Naruto…" Shino said as Deidara twirled a kunai in his hand.

"Say goodnight bug boy, yeah." Deidara said with a half smile.

XXXXXXXXXXX

"Neji-san!" Hinata cried with tears in her eyes. She ran forward and hugged her cousin in pure glee. Tears stained Neji's robe as he embraced his cousin tightly.

"Hinata-san, I was so worried. You don't know what kind of hell Hiashi-sama made me go through." Neji said as his saw his teammates approached them. Hinata laughed as she ran to her other friends.

"Kiba-kun, Akamaru, Chouji-san, Sai!" Hinata said as she gave each one a warm embrace. Akamaru's tailed wagged violently as he licked her face. Laughing, Hinata politely told him to stop.

"You were with the Akatsuki the whole time?" Kiba said, finally realizing what his old teammate was wearing.

"As troublesome as it sounds, yes." Shikamaru answered as he joined the group, Lee close behind.

"Shikamaru, Lee!" The group called out as the made their long awaited greetings.

"Where are the others?" Lee asked.

"I was about to ask the same thing." Neji said.

"You're the only ones from home?" Hinata asked shocked.

"Hai, we thought the rest of the group was taken into sound." Chouji said.

"We thought we were the only ones that were taken." Shikamaru said.

"We should abandon our current mission and bring them home." Sai suggested.

"Wait! We don't know where Sakura-chan is!" Hinata said in panic.

"She's with you?" Sai asked.

"She's with Uchiha Itachi though." Shikamaru said, earning eight shocked faces.

XXXXXXXXXXX

Sakura was just about to enter the back of the building when she sensed a very familiar chakra. She stopped and put up a genjutsu when she saw who it was.

"Tenten-chan?!" Sakura said as she raced to her long time friend.

"Oh kami, Sakura-chan?!" Tenten said in amazement as she ran to her friend.

"I can't believe it!" the two said in unison as the hugged each other.

"How have you been, where are the others?" Tenten asked.

"Shikamaru, Lee-san, and Hinata-chan are with Kisame trying to kill Orochimaru." Sakura answered.

"What?!"

"What about you?"

"Naruto, Shino, Ino-chan, and Kabuto are protecting Orochimaru."

"What?!" Sakura said. It didn't take long before the two realized both groups were in grave danger.

"Oh shit!" They said at the same time as the ran into the compound.

XXXXXXXXXXX

"We have to get Sakura-chan and go." Hinata said as she activated her byakugan, Neji did the same. Simultaneously, the two pointed to the compound. "I found her, and…and-" Hinata began.

"And Naruto, with the rest of our missing friends as well." Neji finished.

"So all of us came together in another huge battle? How troublesome." Shikamaru said as he took a cigarette from his Akatsuki robe. He lit it and took a puff before flinging it to the ground.

"Lets get our friend home." Neji said as he, Shikamaru, and Sai took the lead.

XXXXXXXXX

"Get rid of him Deidara, all we need is the kyuubi, and that bastard's head." Kisame said as he drained the last of Naruto's chakra.

"Gladly." Deidara said as he flung the kunai straight at Shino.

Shino waited for contact, but instead heard the clash of metal against metal. There in front of him stood Tenten and Sakura.

"Long time no see Shino-san." Sakura said as she held a hard gaze on the people in the room. Her glared only wavered when she saw Ino, and Naruto on the floor.

"You alright?" Tenten asked, katana in both hands.

"I fine, thanks to you two. My insects are healing me from the inside, I should be able to move in a minute or two." Shino whispered.

"Sa-Sakura-ch-chan?…" Naruto murmured, his vision slightly blurry.

"Naruto." Sakura said, tears building up. _"He changed so much." _

"Ah, Sakura. Came to join us, ye-" but Deidara shut his mouth when Itachi stepped forward.

"Let him go you bastard." Sakura growled out. Itachi suddenly appeared in front of the two kunoichies. Both Tenten and Sakura stood in place, though Tenten was shocked of his speed.

"You're team, along with the kyuubi will be leaving, **now**." Itachi ordered, his voice so deadly that Tenten and Sakura felt a year of their lives leave them.

"We don't think so." Neji said as he and the others entered the building.

XXXXXXXX

**AN: **After 6 long years, the leaves of Konoha meet once again, but is that too good to be true? I have no idea!


	4. Warning!

**AN: **Just wanted to warn that this story might take awhile to update because I'm trying to finish up two of my other stories at once. On the other hand, since it seems that no one really likes this story, I think I might have to discontinue it and start fresh with something different. I don't know, it depends on what you guys think…but I'm sure that I'll miss this plot. Thank you for reading.

-Ja ne!


	5. Search and Lost

**AN: I don't own Naruto…. **

**Chapter 4 – Search and Lost...**

XXXXXXXXXXXX

**Sound**

"You guys?!" Both Tenten and Sakura said in unison. Tenten was more than happy to see that Lee and Neji were just fine. Neji and the rest just nodded as they readied themselves for the upcoming battle.

"Naruto-kun." Hinata muttered seeing Naruto in his condition. For the first time in six years, she glared at Kisame with pure hatred. "Shino-kun." Hinata activated her byakugan. _"You won't get away with this!" _

_"Ino!"_ Both Chouji and Shikamaru thought as they saw their old teammate on the floor, hopefully just unconscious.

"Isn't this a surprise, yeah?" Deidara said as he looked at the leaf nins with a smirk.

"More fun I say." Kisame said taking his sword out of Naruto's shoulder. Naruto took one last look at his friends before closing his eyes, and drifting to sleep.

"This battle would be pointless. Our objective is not to fight them. We have what we came for. Let's go." Itachi said.

"Ah, you're no fun Itachi." Kisame said, hoisting Naruto over his shoulder.

"I recommend you just listen to him. He's awfully pissed right now, yeah." Deidara said. Kisame was about to walk away but he could move.

"Hn. You better let go of me kid." Kisame said smiling.

"Who said we would just let you three walk out of here?" Shikamaru said keeping a tight hold of the mist nin's shadow.

"Hinata, Shikamaru, Kiba!" Neji ordered.

"We're on it!" Kiba said as he, Akamaru and Hinata went after Kisame. Shikamaru took out Asuma's brass knuckle blade, getting ready for the worst.

"Chouji, Lee, Sai, go after Deidara." Neji ordered, before he went after Itachi himself. Sai was about to protest, but decided to follow the Hyuuga's orders.

With speed unknown to Tenten, Itachi kicked her to the side effortlessly and engaged in a taijutsu match with Sakura. "Tenten!" but Itachi gave her no time to worry over her friend as he blew a huge blast of fire straight at her. Sakura dodged effortlessly as she tried to hit Itachi with her well known punches. _"I'm not going to hold back anymore, not when I'm so close to escape this bastard. I'll use all of my strength!" _Sakura thought as she dared to match the Uchiha's speed.

"You will lose Sakura. It will be wise to follow orders." Itachi said as he blocked Sakura's attacks easily.

"I've been following your orders for years, and frankly, I'm damn sick of them!" Sakura said as she focused chakra into her hands. Red chakra created a small barrier around her hands. Itachi jumped back, sensing the danger of being in close contact with the kunoichi.

_"I've never seen that jutsu before." _ Itachi thought as he focused on her new technique with his sharingan.

"I'm glad to see you're alive, Sakura." Neji said as he appeared next to her.

"Never thought I'd see you here Neji." Sakura said with a smile.

"What's that technique? I've never seen it before."

"Something I developed over the years. This will be my first time using it."

Neji kept his eyes away from Itachi's sharingan, but with his byakugan, he could tell the Akatsuki member was ready to begin. Neji could see all the other battles being fought, which only brought back six year old memories.

"Whenever you're ready." Neji muttered. Sakura took the hint and lunged forward. _"We don't have to hold back anymore."_ Sakura thought. Only a few meters away Hinata, Shikamaru and Lee were all thinking along the same lines.

_"We have our friends with us now."_ Lee thought as he appeared behind Deidara, readying himself to use his new signature move.

_"For the first time in the last six years, we finally have the advantage."_ Shikamaru thought as he finally had a firm hold on Kisame.

_"And we are going to use everything we have!"_ Hinata thought while she prepared to use her jyuuken on Kisame.

_"We are not going to lose!"_ The four thought as they all came in contact with their opponents.

XXXXXXXXXXX

Itachi waited for the kunochi and the Hyuuga as they both launched themselves forward. Avoiding chakra barriers and Sakura's insane punches led Itachi to one conclusion, his mangekyou. As soon as Sakura and Neji felt the change in his chakra, they stopped their attacks almost immediately.

"This will end now." Itachi said as he placed every leaf nin in the entire room into a genjutsu.

"Kuso!" Neji cursed as he and the rest fell to the floor immobile.

_"How did he do this without eye contact?"_ Shikamaru thought as he couldn't move even his finger an inch. _"This is probably how the people felt when i use my shadow jutsu. How troublesome."_

"How could I let this happen?" Hinata muttered as she watched helplessly as Itachi made his way toward Sakura.

"No! I can't let him..." Lee said trying to undo the justu.

"Shit." Sakura cursed when she saw Itachi stand right next to her. Itachi bent over and grabbed her by the neck. With a tight grip he lifted her to a standing position. Choking from the lack of air, Sakura found herself falling in and out of consciousness.

"Truly foolish Sakura. I expected-"

"Expected?!" Sakura said, cutting Itachi off.

"Yes. You were a skilled medic from the start, and from all the training we provided over the years, this is all you could accomplish? So far, you and those idiots only made our mission simpler." Itachi said with a hint of disappointment in his voice.

"Oro-Orochimaru wasn't-"

"Our target. You're correct Sakura." Itachi said, tightening his grip on her windpipe. "Our sources showed that Konoha would send some of their most talented nins to Sound. What better a way to kill them all but in Sound with Orochimaru's assistance?"

"You bastard." Sakura muttered as she glared into his spinning mangekyou.

"Itachi, I think that's enough. We should get going, yeah." Deidara said summoning a large clay bird. They bird's tail extended toward Kisame where it took Naruto's unconscious body.

"I'll take care of Sakura, yeah." Deidara said, but was ignored as Sakura slowly shut her eyes. Itachi's mangekyou turned back to his regular sharingan as he released Sakura's neck. He quickly caught her limp body before it fell and handed her over to Deidara.

_**-Sakura's Mind-**_

"Damn it, how could I be so stupid." Sakura thought as she walked in a dark cave. "I can't even cancel this genjutsu."

"Sakura." Sakura heard someone call her name from behind.

"So what do you plan to do to me you weasel?" Sakura growled out. "Why don't you just kill me? Or do you still need me to heal those eyes?"

"You've changed so much." Itachi said in a low tone, something that made Sakura shudder. Suddenly, he was right in front of her.

"What the?!" but Sakura stopped when she looked into his onyx eyes. The same eyes that nearly killed all her friends, that took her teammate, and everything else.

"You know what I'll do when you disobey my orders. You remember the last time you tried to escape, right?" Itachi asked, his face mere centimeters away. Sakura just looked away from his eyes as her fist clenched.

"It's hard to remember am I right?" Itachi said. Sakura returned to glaring at him, but this time with hated increased ten fold.

Suddenly, images in her memory surrounded the two. Like miniature movie screens, small clips of her memory swirled around the dark cave. Sakura's eyes widened in almost panic, knowing what was to come.

"How about this one." Itachi said as he selected a piece of her memory. The rest of the memory clips disappeared as they found themselves in the memory he selected. Sakura looked around, her eyes widened as she recalled that one night in konoha nine years ago.

"It can't be." Sakura muttered as she heard foot steps approaching the road to the main gate of Konoha. She ran toward the familiar road, but stopped and turned around. From behind she saw her old self, looking down. Sakura then turned around to find the twelve year old version of Sasuke.

"No!" sakura said as she closed her eyes. "Not this one!"

"Why is that Sakura?" Itachi asked, walking towards her.

"Why do you always take away my memories of Sasuke?!" Sakura said, on the verge of tears. Itachi remained silent though. Once again, Sakura heard Sasuke call her annoying, the gradually the memory started to fade. "No, nooooooooo!" Sakura said clenching her head from pure agony. She fell to her side as her tears rolled down her face. As if a drill was slowly being driven into her head, the pain was real.

Soon the dark cave around her stated to collapse as her pain subsided. Before she could get back to normal, Itachi whispered into her ear, "Because, I want you to forget Sasuke." Sakura's eyes widen at Itachi's answer to the last question.

"I will never forget him, and I'll never forgive you." Sakura growled through clenched teeth.

Itachi then grabbed both of her shoulders and lifted her to a sitting position. Itachi looked into her eyes, and he surprisingly didn't find any fear or hate, but determination.

"Then I'll just have to erase my brother completely from your mind." Itachi said. From that point, Sakura was sure she felt the pain of death.

_"Sasuke-kun..."_ Sakura managed to think before that name became blank.

_**-Reality-**_

"Why the hell did the Kyuubi have to take over the kid now?!" Kisame complained as Naruto protected his comrades. Itachi had too little chakra to activate his mangekyou after his extensive use.

"We have to retreat yeah." Deidara said as he carried sakura's limp body bridal style.

"What?! After all this?" Kisame said as he barely dodged one of Naruto's claws.

"Let's go." Itachi ordered. No sooner did Deidara blow up a large section of the roof.

"Come on yeah!" Deidara then jumped through the hole as he sped away into the forest, Itachi and Kisame behind him. "Art is a bang yeah." Deidara said as the Sound hideout exploded.

XXXXXXXXX

"Sakura-chan!" Naruto yelled sitting up. A sharp pain greeted his shoulder and he was forced to lie back down. "I'm in-"

"Konoha's hospital, Naruto-kun." Hinata said in a soft voice.

"Hinata-chan? How did we, are you ok? Are you hurt anywhere serious? What happened?" Naruto asked urgently.

"Whoa, Naruto. At least be happy you're home again. How long has it been, and no hi?" A nin in the corner of the room said as he put away a small green book he was reading.

"Hn." Neji said as he stood at the other corner.

"Kakashi, Neji!" Naruto said happily. Naruto was about to run up to his former sensei, but Hinata stopped him, not wanting to him to further damage his body.

"Same as ever. You haven't changed much." Neji said with a smirk.

"Calm down, you're home." Sai said with a smile, walking into the room.

"Hey! Teme!" Naruto greeted happily.

"What about everyone else? Are they here too? Where are they?" Naruto asked, looking at the four. Sai kept silent for once, and Hinata shifted uncomfortably. Tears visible in her eyes. Neji just closed his eyes, scowling.

"Everyone's in a room near yours. They'll all be ok in a few days." Neji said not looking Naruto in the eyes.

"Yes, thanks to you most of us are here now." Hinata said with a sad smile. Kakashi's smile then turned to a frown.

"What did I do? I don't remember doing anything after Kisame knocked me out...Wait, what do you mean that most of you are here? Who are missing?!" Naruto demanded sitting up again, ignoring the pain and Hinata's protest.

"The only one who's missing is...Our Sakura." Kakashi said.

XXXXXXXXX

"Finally the snake's dead." A nin in a hooded cloak said.

"I was disappointed though." Another nin with a large sword strapped to his back said.

"What? Because Sasuke had all the fun?" Another nin with a hooded cloak said amusingly.

"Yes Juugo. That and, we couldn't even see what all the commotion in the hideout was about." The nin said as he drank another bottle of water.

"Stop drinking all the water Suigetsu!" A nin in the group said.

"Ah, shut it Karin." Suigetsu said.

"Both of you be quiet." Sasuke said. Immediately the two stopped. "Let's hurry and leave. _"I can tell he's close."_ Sasuke thought as his eyes narrowed. _"And I'll finally have my chance to kill you, Itachi."_

XXXXXXXXX

**AN: Ok, my updating period needs improvement, I know...so anyways i hope u like the chapter. Thank you everyone!**


	6. Lost Memories

**AN: I don't own Naruto…. **

**Chapter 5 –Lost Memories...**

XXXXXXXXXXXX

"What happened? I feel like I got smacked around by Kisame." Sakura muttered as she sat up from her bed, scratching her head. The room, Sakura noticed, was well lit, showing its polished wooden floors and walls, but the small space was under furnished. Only a desk in the corner was the only other furniture than the bed she was on.

Her head instantly went under a series of sharp pains. Flashes of previous event then evaded her mind, though some were blurry, she had the general idea of what happened...Her life was screwed over for the second time. She clenched her head, wincing at the throbbing pain until it finally subsided.

_"Mother fucker..."_ She thought, slipping out of bed. "From all the crap I pulled, I'm even surprised that bastard kept me alive." Sakura laughed to herself. How come it was always her that seems to be found in these kinds of predicaments? "I suppose I have to live with it, for now." Though, somewhere inside, she felt like she was missing something. Something really important, so important that she was even willing to die just to keep it. But what could it be? What could be missing? Everything is the same again, well except that now she was alone with the Akatsuki, Itachi and the others are pissed that she betrayed them, and maybe some other things, but nonetheless the same. She was in hell.

Wondering how long she had been out, she began to do her regular stretches. After she was fully awake, she checked her chakra supply. It was close to zip._ "Of course"_, she thought, _"a courtesy of Kisame I believe."_ Seeing her old Akatsuki cloak on the table, she grabbed with distaste. _"They even went as far as retrieve the one I ditched back at Sound? Either they're too cheap to get a new one, or they're really conservative." _ She thought, putting the cloak on. She then went to the door; half surprised to find it open, and even more suprised not to find anyone guarding her. She then headed toward the kitchen.

XXXXXXX

"Baa-chan, we have to go get Sakura-chan back now!" Naruto yelled, slamming his hands onto the hokage's desk.

An irritated look crossed his face when Tsunade just let a sigh before slowly drinking another shot of sake.

"Don't you think if I could send a team after Sakura-chan , I would? Shikamaru, Hinata, and Lee all told me that the Akatsuki change their base at least every sing week or so. I love her like a daughter, but the fact at hand is, we don't know where she is, there's no way of tracking her, and lastly-"

"I'll go alone if I have to!" Naruto yelled, cutting Tsunade off. "I don't care if I have to look every inch of the nation, I'll save her from the Akatsuki and bring her home!"

"Don't be a fool. The Akatsuki are after you aren't they?" Tsunade said taking another sip of sake. At this Naruto only kept silent. "Don't cause more problems then there already are Naruto. Don't repeat the same turnout you had with your other former teammate when rushing to retrieve him."

"Kuso" Naruto muttered, his hands balled into fists on Tsunade's desk.

"Naruto, before you even think about leaving on your own, think about this. Are you even strong enough to face the Akatsuki? From the report given to me by the others, Orochimaru deprived you, Ino, Tenten, and Shino of any proper training. If you want to get anywhere, I suggest you start training." Tsunade just watched as Naruto looked down to the floor defeated. "When everyone has healed up, we'll see what happens. You're dismissed Naruto." Tsunade said in a commanding tone. Without a word, Naruto left the office, slamming the door shut.

As Naruto exited the Hokage tower, he headed straight for his team's old training ground. _"If I have to get stronger to get Sakura-chan back, then I'm going to train until I can take down all the Akatsuki. Sakura-chan, I won't have one broken promise, as well as leave you in the hands of those bastards. I will save you from the Akatsuki...I'm going to keep this promise."_ Naruto thought as he sprinted to the training fields.

XXXXXXXXXX

"Hospitals are so troublesome." Shikamaru muttered as the nurse injected another dose of whatever was in the shot, in his arm.

"You'll just have to live with it." Tenten said as sat up from her bed.

"You shouldn't sit up Tenten, your ribs haven't healed yet." Neji said pushing her back down in a laying position.

"I'm healed enough Neji." Tenten said in a stern voice.

"Hinata, what happened to Shino?" Kiba asked.

"He's being treated by some of his clan members in the other room. The insects inside him needed special treatment." Hinata explained.

"I failed as a friend; I can not forgive myself." Lee muttered.

"Lee, it's not your fault. It's those damn Akatsuki that took Sakura." Ino said.

"I wish I had Naruto's healing ability, then maybe I can get out of here faster!" Kiba muttered as he thought of when he could go see if Akamaru was doing all right in his sister's care.

"It's always involves Naruto's team, doesn't it?" Neji said.

"Yup. Everyone knows by now, their team is famous, but not for anything good." Chouji said grabbing a bag of chips out of nowhere.

"Who would of known all of this would happen when we were all back at the academy?" Ino said, showing a sad smile. "Or when our teams were chosen? Right Shikamaru?"

"Yeah." Shikamaru muttered.

"We must not reminisce about all the things that have happened! We should concentrate on getting Sakura-san back home!" Lee said with determination.

"Lee's right. As soon as we get the heck out of here, I'm going to go help Naruto-kun." Hinata said.

_"She doesn't stutter that much anymore."_ Neji thought sadly, knowing his cousin grew up without him for the last six years.

"I'll come as well." Neji said, earning a grateful smile from Hinata.

"I'm coming too of course!" Tenten and Lee said in unison.

"Actually count all of us!" Kiba yelled.

"Troublesome." Shikamaru sighed, but everyone knew he felt just the same.

"I suggest though, that when we get out of here, we all train for a while before even attempting to search for the hag-Sakura." Sai said with a smile before leaving the room.

Both Tenten and Ino looked to the floor. "Ino, we're going to have to kill ourselves in training for a while." Tenten said with a smirk.

"Right!" Ino agreed with a nod.

XXXXXXXXXX

"Hey Sasuke, where are we headed now?" Suigetsu said taking another swing of his water bottle.

"The old man back in the last village told me there was a base near the mountains toward the west. He saw a couple of the Akatsui head towards it. There's another town right at the mountain's base, we can ask more questions there." Sasuke replied monotonously as Hebi continued their way to the mountains.

"Stop questioning Sasuke's action Suigetsu!" Karin warned.

"Shut the hell up. I still don't know why you're still with us. What'd you say you had to again?" Suigetsu said, annoyed with the kunoichi.

"Two of you, drop it, you don't want Sasuke to get angry again." Juugo warned.

"Whatever, she just wants to be with Sasuke anyways." Suigetsu said.

"Damnit! I've been traveling with you for over a month now, you think that-"

"Karin, be quiet." Sasuke said, not even looking back. Karin instantly shut up, glaring at Suigetsu's smirk.

XXXXXXXXXX

"Glad to see you're up Sakura." Deidara said putting away his dishes.

"Hn." Sakura muttered grabbing a couple of fruit off the kitchen counter, and sitting down at the wooden table in the center of the kitchen.

"A-are you feeling ok?" Sakura asked, taking a bite off the apple.

"Hm?...Oh, the poison, yup, I feel better now, yeah." Deidara said taking a seat across from her.

"Stupid thought but you and the others are probably really pissed, huh?" Sakura asked.

"Well, you did use a non lethal poison on us, but we had the antidotes for it." At this Sakura's eyes widened. Deidara started laughing. "You didn't think that just because you were our medic we leave you to handle all the poisons and herbs without checking all of them, did you?" Sakura let out a smirk as she took another bite of her apple. "But we had to admit, that poison took some of our other medics five months to get the antidote. That was another reason that I think leader kept you alive, and is still keeping you alive after what you pulled." Deidara said grabbing one of Sakura's fruit.

"You don't seem that mad at me." Sakura said, a little confused.

"Well, you are my friend, and I know that you could have used a lethal poison when you gave that fish to me, but you didn't. I knew you couldn't resist my sweet charm." Deidara said. Sakura shook her head laughing lightly.

"Well it seems like you're my only friend here." Sakura muttered. "Everyone else is too pissed off to even look at me probably." Sakura said in a low tone.

"Well Kisame didn't really care much, he pretty much figured that it would happen one of these years. He said he was kind of surprised that it took so long, it was as though you like being with us."

"Don't even joke about that. He and all of the others wanted to kill me the moment I stepped into the base with my..._friends_..." Sakura then hit her own sore spot, and Deidara noticed it.

"Well, I'm not like that, and Tobi, well he's an idiot. I don't think Kisame wants to kill you that much anymore, Zetsu's weird, I can never tell with Itachi, but I still consider you a friend...A dangerous one, but a friend nonetheless." Deidara said, smiling like the way she remembered her teammate used to.

"Itachi's only keeping me alive to heal those damn eyes of his." Sakura said finishing her first apple. She went for the plum before letting out a sigh.

"Well he didn't really bother you on that for the first couple of years about it." Deidara said finishing his apple.

"That's either because he didn't trust me, or he had too much pride to ask for my help."

"I'd go with both, but it's different now, right?" Deidara asked.

"But after what I pulled, I'm probably right to the start again." Sakura muttered.

"No, I don't think so. You still have all the privileges you had before that mission. If Itachi wanted, he could have had at least Tobi watch you, but he didn't do anything, which surprised me as well." Deidara said. "Though that idiot Tobi would probably wave hi as you leave the base if he watched you." He muttered before both of them went into a fit of laughter. When they calmed down, Sakura turned serious again.

"I still don't know how you could be so nice to me Deidara. Either you're a great actor, or I'm just really lucky I have found you within the Akatsuki." Sakura said sincerely.

"Well it's easy to talk to you, and I prefer you company over Kisame's any day. That drunk bastard." Sakura cracked another smile at his comment.

"You're also the one to help me with my gengutsu too. From all of us you most improved on your genjutsu. When ever Itachi puts us in one, you're usually the first one out of it, yeah." Deiadara said. He then saw Sakra suddenly grip the table in one hand, while the other held her head.

"Sa-Sakura, you alright?" Deidara asked standing up from his chair.

In her mind she saw a hallway, with a younger version of herself, Naruto, and maybe some other person, but everything about that person was completely blocked out.

"Sakura...Out of all of us...genjustu...You probably...First one to..." Sakura somewhat heard through her fading memory.

"sakura, you alright?" Deidara asked concerned. _"Is this still the affect from Itachi's mangekyou?"_ Deidara thought.

"Yeah, I'm alright" Sakura said hesitantly.

"You sure? You are the medic nin, yeah." Deidara said.

"Yup, so anyway." Sakura said, wanting to change the subject away from herself. "Why are you such a nice person to me? Even back when I first came into the Akatsuki, I thought you would hate me since I helped kill Sasori."

"Well, it was sad that Sasori-sempai died but he wasn't much a friend if you know what I mean. Well anyways, back then, when I first met you, it was easy to be your friend because we had the same feelings toward someone." At this Sakura was a bit confused.

"The same feelings, toward someone?" Sakura asked.

"Hn." Deidara said looking her straight in the eye. "We both despise _Uchiha Itachi_." Deidara growled out, his face no longer smiling. Sakura's eyes widen at almost shock.

XXXXXXXXXX

"No Naruto, you shouldn't always rely on you bunshins to fight with you." Neji said. "It's too common now, you should develop something new. The fuuton rasengan will kill you if you don't perfect it."

Hundreds of clones of Naruto nodded at him before continuing their training.

"Yes Tenten! Your power of youth is being restored at an amazing pace!" Lee said enthusiastically at the panting Tenten.

"Thanks." She said before getting ready for another round.

"Ino, if you keep losing your concentration, you'll never have the enemy under full control." Shikamaru said trying to catch Ino with his shadow.

"Yeah, concentrate Ino!" Chouji said as he watched them in the sidelines eating his favorite bag of chips.

"Shino-kun, are you all right?" Hinata asked scared that her gentle fist attack was too much.

"Come on Shino! You can do better!" Kiba said, Akamaru nodding.

"This is going to take a while, huh?" Sai said drawing sketches of various creatures.

"They're not progressing fast enough. It's been two whole weeks. At this rate it will take another month before they're back in shape, and when we even have a chance against the Akatsuki." Kakashi said. "Hn, kids these days, making me feel old with all the new justsus going around."

"Well you are getting old." Sai said with a smile. Kakashi's right eye started twitching.

XXXXXXXX

"No, I won't help you anymore." Sakura said with determination. She was currently in the medical room with the one Akatsuki member she always felt somewhat nervous around.

"You say that as if you have a choice in the matter." Itachi said sitting across from her in the table near the center of the room.

"Because I do. You don't have anyone to threaten anymore! I refuse to betray the ones I love any longer!" Sakura said. Itachi just looked at her like he was bored, he wasn't taking her seriously, which really pissed her off. "Without those damn eyes of yours, you can't hurt anyone else."

"Whether my eyes function correctly, this fact remains, I am stronger than all of those pathetic leaf nins you somehow cherish so much, and I will still obtain the kyuubi." Itachi said monotonously. That did it, Sakura snapped.

"You bastard! Like hell if I would ever allow you to lay a finger on Naruto!" Sakura yelled, but the moment she finished her sentence she found herself against the wall with Itachi's right hand around her throat. Both chairs and the table were toppled over on the floor, causing both Deidara and Kisame down stairs to wonder what was happening.

Not wanting to let Itachi see her astonishment of his speed, she held her hard gaze to the side of his face, away from his swirling sharingan.

"I will not tolerate your behavior." Itachi said in a low threatening voice.

"And I will not tolerate you." Sakura said, choking from his tightening grip. "Your stubbornness and loyalty to those weak fools will kill you. You will do what I want Sakura." Itachi whispered into her ear, making her shiver.

"Don't do that." Sakura growled out.

"Hn. You're annoying." Itachi said. At this something in Sakura made her heart ache. _"Those words...It's so familiar."_ She thought. Her head then started to throb as she closed her eyes from its shear pain. Itachi released her throat as she started coughing, her body regaining its regular oxygen supply. From what Itachi saw, her eyes looked toward the wall to something distant.

Blurry images flashed in her mind, she couldn't make out the faces, or even the voices for that matter. All she knew was that she heard those words somewhere before, and for some reason, she became angry. She couldn't even remember where she knew those words were from. She didn't know where this new found anger was coming from either. She herself should have grown out of being affecting by words like annoying, yet the way he said it, it just pissed the hell out of her.

"Don't say that. Don't you ever say those words again!" She muttered, the pain finally disappearing.

"And why shouldn't I say that?" Itachi asked. His face showed no emotion whatsoever, but Sakura could see the smirk behind his words.

"...I...Don't...Just don't...Don't..." Sakura said trailing off, almost forcing herself to try and remember. Why couldn't she?

_"She still has some of my brother in her thoughts."_ Itachi thought, his eyes narrowing at the confused kunoichi. "You don't know why?" Itachi asked.

"What did you do?" Sakura asked in a soft tone, as though she were speaking to herself. "Why can't I remember why those words make me feel this way?" Sakura asked, her voice almost pleading. She looked up to see Itachi's normal eyes, without the sharingan. This made her feel even more upset._ "Those eyes, his words, it's all so familiar, but why? I was with him for six years and never had this happened." _Sakura thought, tears forming, but she did her best not to let them fall.

Itachi squatted down until he was eye level with her. She looked at him with mixed feelings of confusion , anger, sadness, and maybe even, regret? Once again, seeing Itachi's eyes made her head throb. Sakura grabbed her head, and instinctively started to use her chakra, finding no other way to numb the pain. Her healing jutsu did nothing as she let her tears fall. The pain she felt even prevented her from even noticing she was in Itachi's embrace.

"Just please if you know, just please tell me why I can't remember, why I feel this way, please..." Sakura pleaded, hating the thought of pleading to the Uchiha. She looked into his dark empty eyes, trying to find anything, but she found nothing. With one hand, Itachi gently wiped away her tears. She tried to pull away from his hold, but he didn't let her.

"Why are you-" but Sakura didn't finish her question as Itachi's lips found hers in a gentle kiss. As he pulled away, he watched as her face changed from shock to utter confusion. What Itachi couldn't see was what she felt deep within her heart; as though she felt she betrayed someone she didn't even know.

"You don't remember, and you feel this way, because..." Itachi began as he looked straight into her jade eyes. He leaned in for another kiss, this time receiving a little resistance from her. "That's what I wanted." Itachi finished as he activated his mangekyou. Sakura's world soon turned dark.

XXXXXXXX

**AN:** I know I update like every year or two. I'm sorry. T.T... I'll try to finish my two stories up so I can go onto some other things! Like making muffins and throwing them at mean critics when they get stale! Muhahaha...eh heh, jk of course...(starts mixing ingredients). XP I know the ItachiSaku part may have been a bit random to some readers, but that's mainly because my creepy friend (Orochimaru, the one in my profile) wanted me to write something "interesting". Che, probably would of like it if it was about him and Sasuke (gets hit by a flaming fruit tart). Well anyways, thank you for reading! If you have any suggestions of any comments, don't hesitate to inform me. Please review! X) It really helps! Ja ne!


	7. Unrecognizable Past

**AN: I don't own Naruto…. **

**Chapter 6 –Unrecognizable Past...**

XXXXXXXXXXXX

The sun was bright, casting its yellow rays upon the forest around her. Barely any clouds were visible, as the weather left the air warm and comfortable. Out in the training yard, Sakura slept on a thick tree branch, exhausted from her morning workout. The wind played with her hair as it blew across her face, causing her eyes to blink open to the sun's welcoming light.

It has been about a three or four weeks since the incident with Itachi. Since then, the less she tried to think about the cause for her headaches, the less they occurred. So after a while, she learned to ignore the forgotten thoughts. Itachi didn't bother her about healing his eyes, which somehow made her feel uneasy. He could be up to something, but she didn't how what. In the meantime, she mainly concentrated on training nowadays.

Deidara supported her all the way, which she was glad. Kisame helped her occasionally, but still took sparring matches too seriously, making them into life and death struggles. She preferred to fight without the Akatsuki cloak, but Itachi insisted that she always wear it, and insisting in his terms means 'just do it or else'. She didn't know what else to do other than train her ass off, since before, when Hinata, Shikamaru, and Lee were with her, she would have someone to talk to, or something to do. Now that she had no one most of the time, since Deidara was called away on missions, Sakura spent her days utterly alone.

She even began to doubt if anyone from Konoha were still looking for her, but as soon as those thoughts came, she pushed them away. They would come for her, they were like her family. She would never leave them, and she was sure they thought the same way as well. Her thoughts then lead to Itachi, which kind of scarred her. Why did he kiss her? It was probably just lust; she was the only girl in the Akatsuki.

_**"You don't remember, and you feel this way, because..."**_ Sakura remembered, _**"That's what I wanted." **_

"What he wanted? He has something to do with my memories, I know it...Wait!...He stole my first kiss!" Sakura realized, touching her lips with her fingers. "That bastard!" Sakura yelled.

"Hey, who's a bastard, yeah?!" Deidara asked looking up at the branch Sakura was on from the base of the tree.

"Deidara! You're back? How was the mission?" Sakura asked, jumping down.

"Easy of course, except when Tobi accidentally detonated one of my landmines. That baka." Deidara said.

"Is he alright? I should check on him." Sakura said.

"Like always, you're too nice Sakura." Deidara sighed. "He's in the medical room. Oh, when you're done, don't forget it's you and Tobi who have to go into town and get some supplies. The list should be with Tobi."

"But he's hurt!" Sakura said.

"Not that bad, maybe just a little burn on the arm, but nothing he shouldn't be able to handle, yeah." Deidara said. "Oh, also, don't think about running away, Itachi will know somehow, which is kind of creepy if I think about it, yeah." He said smiling.

"You know I couldn't do that. Kisame would probably use that excuse to finally kill me, or Itachi would find a way to make me regret it somehow." Sakura said.

"Alright then, just be careful."

"I can take care of myself."

"Not you, Tobi. Just try not to kill him when he gets annoying, yeah?" Deidara said, both of them laughing.

"Gotcha. I'll see you tonight then right?" Sakura said.

"Hm." Deidara nodded.

XXXXXXXX

"Fuuton rasengan!" Naruto called out, his jutsu creating a huge crater, making a new clearing in the forest.

"Awsome Naruto!" Kiba called out.

"It looks like we're finally back into shape, ne Tenten?" Ino asked as she dodged Hinata's kaiten.

"Hai!" Tenten called out, blocking Lee's numerous attacks.

"Shino, it looks like you in top shape as well." Shikamaru commented as he dodged Chouji's punches.

"It finally looks as though we're ready." Neji said.

"I suppose so. It took long enough anyways." Sai agreed.

"I'll go inform the Hokage." Kakashi said, disappearing in a cloud of smoke.

"Don't worry Sakura-chan, you waited long enough!" Naruto said, looking towards the bright, sunny sky.

XXXXXXXX

"Tobi are you sure that you can handle all those groceries?" Sakura asked, seeing that Tobi was almost hitting every person passing by.

"Of course Sakura-saaaaan!" Tobi said tripping on an empty bottle. Sakura just shook her head as she helped Tobi with the groceries.

"We just have to get some empty scrolls and some herbs, then we can go back home, alright?" Sakura asked.

"Hai Sakura-san!" Tobi said enthusiastically. Sakura just smiled at his childish behavior.

As they entered the weapons shop, Sakura instantly felt a strong chakra pattern near. _"They're masking their chakra pretty well."_ Sakura thought seeing that Tobi didn't notice a thing as he picked out a few scrolls from the shelves. After getting the scrolls and some herbs, the two left the shop. They then headed toward opposite way of the base. Tobi didn't seem to notice since he couldn't see anything past all the grocery bags. Sakura's guess was right when she saw two figures standing in their path.

"Sakura-san? Why did you stop?" Tobi asked, putting the bags of supplies down.

_"He really is an idiot."_ Sakura thought. "Get ready Tobi, they don't look friendly." Sakura warned, putting on her leather gloves.

"Hai!" Tobi said.

"Never thought the Akatsuki would be so easy to spot out." A kunoichi with glasses said smirking. Her partner next to her was also smirking, one hand already at the handle of the sword on his back.

"Hmph, just a pink haired girl with an orange masked freak? This won't be that fun." The kunoichi's partner said in a disappointed tone.

"He sounds like Kisame-san, ne Sakura-san." Tobi asked.

"Tobi don't let your guard down around these two. They're trouble." Sakura warned.

"Hmph, seems like the girl is the one with the brains." The kunoichi said pushing up her glasses with and index finger. "Suigetsu, you handle the orange mask one, I'll handle pinky here."

"What the hell Karin, why do you get to fight the stronger one?" Suigetsu growled. Karin didn't answer as she charged at Sakura. "Annoying bitch." Suigetsu muttered as he went after Tobi.

Karin aimed a kick at Sakura's stomach, but she caught it easily.

"Ah!" Karin yelled as she jumped away from Sakura. There weren't any visible wounds on her leg, but she still couldn't move it appropriately. "You're a medic nin?" Karin sneered.

"Nice guess." Sakura said charging forward. She aimed a punch at Karin's face, but missed as she flipped backwards. A crater was made where Karin had previously been, which shocked her. "What do you want with the Akatsuki?"

Gain back her composure, Karin answered, "We wish to know the whereabouts of Uchiha Itachi. You wouldn't mind making this easy and telling us, would you?" Karin said pointing a kunai straight at Sakura.

"Why would I tell you that? It's not like you're the first one to ask for his whereabouts..." Sakura said clenching and unclenching her fists. "...Before dying." With that Sakura exerted chakra into her feet, making her disappear in a blink of an eye.

"You think you can kill me that easy?" Karin muttered closing her eyes. She dodged to the right, avoiding a chakra infused kick. "I can sense you chakra a mile away! I better you're the weakest of the Akatsuki to be running away like this!" Karin said as she aimed a punch straight into Sakura's gut. To Karin's dismay, the Sakura she punched turned into a log. "What! I could have sworn-" but Karin was interrupted when the earth under her started to crack and the real Sakura broke through, executing a chakra infused uppercut on Karin's jaw. Karin flew back, completely knocked out, blood dripping from the corner of her mouth.

"Don't underestimate me." Sakura warned. Her jade eyes narrowed at Karin's unconscious body.

"Saaakuuraaa-saan!" Tobi called out before being engulfed in a spherical cage of water. Sakura rushed to his aid seeing Suigetsu take out his sword. At that moment she came to an abrupt halt, her eyes widened.

"Sakura-san, what's wrong?" Tobi asked struggling to move his body. Sakura had one hand grabbing her head one eye closed. "That attack, and that sword." She said, before the throbbing pain once again entered her system.

"What about my sword and jutsu?" Suigetsu asked, his brow raised.

Once again flashes entered her mind. _"No not now!"_ she thought. _**"Run now you three, and take Tazuna with you!"..."This sword belongs to me, one of the seven mist swordsmen"..."Naruto, where's ---"..."It's ok to cry Sakura."..."Shinobi rule number 25, don't show emotions"..."May you find peace Haku, Zabuza."**_ The pain subsided once more as Sakura unclenched her head. She looked to find Suigetsu just about to swing his sword through Tobi.

"No, Tobi!" Sakura yelled, punching the floor, creating a fissure heading straight towards the two. Suigetsu lost his balance and missed Tobi's head by a hair. Sakura then punched Suigetsu in the face forcing to let Tobi go.

"Tobi, you ok?" Sakura asked, hearing him cough out water.

"Yeah" Tobi answered getting up. "Thank you Sakura-san."

_"What the?" _Sakura thought seeing Suigetsu's melted face. His face looked like it was dripping water as it started to reassemble itself. _"That punch should have gotten him, or at least knocked him out."_

"That was unexpected." Suigetsu said smirking. "Karin what the hell? I thought you said you would get this one? Karin?" Suigetsu called out looking to the side. "That weak little..." Suigetsu muttered looking back at Sakura and the drenched Tobi.

"You can just give up now, or else I'll be forced to kill you both." Sakura said.

"I believe that was my line, Sakura." A voice said from behind her. Sakura's eyes widened in shock. She didn't even sense his chakra. The person's swords rested next to her neck, a kunai held against Tobi's back by another shinobi.

"How do you know my name?" Sakura said in a low tone.

"I'm surprised you don't remember me. What would Naruto think?" The person behind her asked.

"How do you know Naruto?!" Sakura demanded, spinning around, not caring about the small cut on her neck. That was when jade met blood red. Tobi just stood there confused about what was happening.

"I can't see how you were able to take care of Karin, and another thing I don't understand is, what are you doing with the Akatsuki?" Sasuke asked emotionlessly, pointing his sword at her heart.

"Hey! You answer my question first!" Sasuke just raised a brow. "How do you know my name? How do you know Naruto?" Sakura demanded, glaring at him. "Who are you?!"

XXXXXXXXX

**AN: Sorry that it's short...I'll try harder for the next chapter! Promise! XP (gets slapped by a bald grandma) What the?...O.o;**


	8. Close Calls

**AN: I don't own Naruto…. **

**Chapter 7 –Close Calls...**

XXXXXXXXXXXX

"Sakura don't play dumb." Sasuke said, narrowing his eyes. _"He looks like Itachi like that...Could they be related?"_ She thought.

"Hm? Sasuke, you know her?" Suigetsu asked, but Sasuke seemed to ignore him, his concentration fully on Sakura.

"Hey, stop saying my name like you know me." Sakura said, her hands balled into fists. "I never met you in my life." The two stared at each other, waiting to see which one would break off first. Sasuke's brow was raised in question. His expression a little confused.

"What's wrong Sasuke? She just another missing nin from Konoha such as yourself." Juugo said, looking at Sakura's unscratched headband. Though he was confused with Sasuke's strange behavior. Sakura's eyes narrowed at his words.

_"Sasuke...Sasuke...I know that same somehow. Damn it! Why can't I remember where I heard it before. He's a missing nin from Konoha? Maybe that's where he might have known me, but I'm sure if I ever met him, I would remember a person like him...But why does he seem so familiar?"_ Sakura thought, but then she remembered that he just called her a missing nin! She would never abandon her village, though being gone six years was a lot, but still, she was captured and she would never tell one secret of her village to anyone. She looked at Sasuke with distaste. If he was a missing nin, that meant he did abandon Konoha on his free will, that just pissed her off. He was a traitor.

"Don't call me a missing nin." Sakura growled out. "Don't you ever put me in the same position as him." She finished glaring at Sasuke.

Having enough of the staring contest, Sakura was the first one to break eye contact as she jumped backwards, taking out a small red flare from her kunai pouch. She bit off the top, successfully starting the red sparks and flame as she threw it up into the air. She then quickly ducked before Sasuke's sword had a chance to cut her. Sasuke took this chance to aim a kick at her side, sending her crashing into a tree.

"Sakura-san!" Tobi called out, wanting to run to her aid if it wasn't for Juugo stopping him.

"Tobi, stay where you are!" Sakura ordered as she pushed herself off of the dented tree trunk. Sasuke appeared at her right swinging his sword downward. Sakura dodged it as she threw a punch at his face. Sasuke ducked as he successfully kneed her in the stomach, but Sakura didn't let it faze her as she continued to attack.

Sasuke's teammates and Tobi watched as the two exchanged blow after blow, dodging only sometimes. The two eventually separated, both jumping backwards.

He sheathed his sword, Sakura guess that he was threatening her with the power of his sharingan alone.

She suddenly found herself alone in the forest. _"A genjutsu." _Sakura thought quickly trying to dispel it. _"Shit."_ The genjutsu's level was too high for her. Soon she watched as someone people stepped into the clearing.

"Naruto? Kakashi? Everyone?" Sakura said, happy to see that he was well. "No, it's an illusion." Sakura reminded herself, suddenly she saw Itachi behind them. One by one, they were all slaine by him, only Naruto remained. Itachi disappeared and Naruto turned around to see her. A long forgotten smile appeared on his face as he happily called out her name. Sakura then saw Itachi behind Naruto. Sakura gasped when she saw him aim a kunai straight at him. By instinct Sakura ran to stop it. She tried calling out, but her voice didn't work, she couldn't make a sound. Naruto looked at her and happily waved, calling out her name. Before she could get to him, the kunai successfully penetrated his heart. Sakura's body froze as she watched the bloods stream from his body. _"It's all a genjutsu, it's all a genjutsu."_ She repeated, her heart racing. Itachi then suddenly appeared in front of her.

"Sakura, you will assist in extracting the kyuubi." Itachi ordered. She suddenly found herself in a cavern with the leader's jinchuuriki container summoning. Eight of the nine eyes were fully opened, and on each finger, except one, stood an Akatsuki member. She dared to look toward the floor. There she stared Naruto's unconscious body.

"No...NO!" Sakura screamed. Putting a huge amount of chakra, she formed a hand seal and yelled out "Kai!" This time she successful dispelled the genjutsu as she found herself back into reality. She quickly moved to the right barely avoiding another lethal swing from his sword. The cut she received on the top of her left eye started to bleed a great deal amount of blood. She fell to her knees panting, tired after using so much chakra at once just to get rid of a genjutsu.

Sasuke charged forward, giving Sakura no choice but to continue fighting. Sasuke managed to give her a painful gash on the side of her stomach. She quckly sealed to wound so it would stop bleeding, but Sasuke barely gave her the time as they went into another taijutsu match. After a couple of minutes, wounds she had obtained earlier were now starting to take effect.

_"Why did I have to waste so much chakra when training in the morning? If I wasn't already tired, I would have kicked this guy's ass by now."_ She thought, cursing the bad timing of her predicament. She had one knee to the floor, her arms keeping her balanced as she attempted to stand up.

"Enough of this Sakura. Tell me where Itachi is, or I'll have to take this seriously." Sasuke said, his sharingan looking directly into her eyes.

_"This whole time, he wasn't being serious?!"_ Sakura thought as she began to heal the cut on the top of her eye, and wiping off the blood from her vision. _"His sharingan...Could he be related to Itachi?" _Sakura shook the thought off_. "It's almost like I've known them somewhere before. Nonetheless, whoever he is, his sharingan doesn't seem as dangerous as Itachi's." _She thought, remembering some of the genjutsus she was forced to endure for hours under his deadly gaze.

"Answer me or I'll use my sharingan to the highest level against you." Sasuke warned.

"Why are you giving her an option? Torture the girl, and get the information already!" Suigetsu said impatiently.

"Hmph." Sakura snorted, which brought her everyone's attention. "Trust me when I say this, but I've seen and experienced worse things from the sharingan." Sakura said with a smirk. "I've lived through things that surpass the sharingan itself actually. You're weak compared to someone I know, so don't think that you can threaten me with those eyes, cause I've seen a hell lot worse."

Sasuke's sharingan began to spin rapidly as he disappeared. His sword blade found her neck as blood seeped from the cut.

"I can kill you right now you know." Sasuke said, his voice laced with venom.

"Why don't you then?" Sakura asked, her eyes looking straight into his sharingan. She had no fear of them, in fact, she felt something vaguely familiar about them.

"Tell me where he is Sakura, or I'll have to torture you to get it." Sasuke threatened.

"Too late." Sakura said with a smirk. About a half second later, multiple bombs exploded around them. Sakura took Sasuke's momentary shock to escape his sword's reach.

"Sakura!" Deidara called out as his bird flew towards her.

"Thank kami Deidara, what took you so long?" Sakura said jumping onto the bird.

"Don't forget me senpai!" Tobi yelled frantically. Deidara created two other birds, one picked up his terrified partner, and the other took all of the supplies.

"This should be a nice present." Deidara said, dropping a small piece of clay straight into the clearing. "You don't mess with the Akatsuki." Deidara muttered before having the clay expand into a large snake. "Art is a bang, yeah" Sakura heard him say before the clearing was hit by the clay bomb.

"That was close, yeah. The others already left to the other base as soon as they saw the flare." Deidara said heading toward the base in the north, near cloud territory. "Who knew that they would show up?" Deidara said smiling.

"They? You know them?" Sakura asked curious.

Deidara nodded. "They're known as Hebi, an annoying group really. The guy with the sharingan and bad attitude is Itachi's-" but Deidara quickly stopped himself, remembering the warning Itachi gave him and Kisame, "Never mind that, yeah." He finished in a low voice. Sakura figured she shouldn't ask questions about, knowing he wasn't allowed to answer. As they flew into the distance, Sakura couldn't help but look back at the smoke, and the person in it. _"Itachi's what? Who was he? Why was he looking for Itachi?...Well that's a stupid question..." _Sakura thought after thinking about it._ "I know him from somewhere, but how?"_ She thought before she began to have another headache. This time, it was a lot worse than she had ever had before.

"Sakura? What's wrong? Sakura...Sakura?!" Sakura heard Deidara say before passing out.

XXXXXXXXXXX

"Damn it! Why did **I** have to carry the fatass?!" Suigetsu complained as he and the others rested near a river.

"What did you call me?!" Karin yelled.

"If you weren't so careless, you could have helped, for once." Suigetsu complained. "That pink haired Akatsuki girl totally kicked your ass!"

"That was just by luck, and besides, I bet you would have lost if Sasuke didn't help you. Right Sasuke?" Karin said looking at Sasuke. She waited for him to agree with her, but no reply came. Juugo decided to fill the canteens, not wanting to be a part of their argument, while Sasuke was lost in thought.

_"Why can't she remember me? She wasn't lying either, I'm sure she couldn't fool my sharingan. If she had amnesia, then why could she remember Naruto and the others?"_ Sasuke thought, and then mentally slapped himself._ "Why should I care? More importantly, why did I hesitate to kill her? I have no more bonds of ties with them. How did she end up with the Akatsuki?" _Sasuke let out a deep breath. It was then he finally noticed Karin calling his name.

"What is it?" He asked in an irritated tone.

"I was just saying how that if it wasn't for you Suigetsu would have lost to that bitch." Karin said, smirking after seeing Suigetsu's pissed expression.

"Hn." Was all that was heard from Sasuke as he ignored Karin.

"Sasuke, what's wrong. You're quieter than usual." Juugo asked handing him his canteen.

"It's probably because that girl doesn't remember him. Who was she anyways? Your ex?" Suigetsu asked, smiling after seeing Karin's distressed face.

"What?!" Karin said turning to Sasuke. "You knew that pink haired freak?"

"Let's move." Sasuke said standing up. His tone effectively stopped the conversation about him and Sakura as they stood up as well. "They flew towards the North. Karin, did you get a read on Sa-the girl's chakra signature?" Sasuke asked.

"Yeah, I'll search for it right now." Karin said before closing her eyes in concentration.

"Che, probably got it after she got smacked in the chin." Suigetsu whispered to Juugo.

"She's only about a couple of kilometers away from us, but I'm losing her chakra signature fast." Karin replied, glaring at Suigetsu.

"We wasted enough time, let's go." Sasuke said as the rest of Hebi followed after him.

XXXXXXXXXX

"Kakashi, we've got a scent near the border, it's very faint but it's there." Pakuun said as he and the other nin dogs stood in front of the one eyed copy nin.

"It doesn't seem fair that Tsunade-sama wouldn't allow all of us to go on this retrieval mission." Hinata said as she and the others in her team waited by the gate.

"Even if it's Sakura, the Hokage must think about the village first. She couldn't let a large number of nins away from the village for a mission that would take, who knows how long." Neji said to his cousin.

"It is unfair indeed, but we shall work five times harder to make it up, yosh!" Lee said with enthusiasm.

"Well out of all of us, she's only letting seven go. That's more than half. I think that was pretty nice of the baa-chan, though I feel bad for the others, after training so hard!" Naruto said as he lifted his pack from the ground.

"All this for that hag, I can't believe it." Sai said with a smile.

"Teme, we all know you want to save her as much as the rest of us." Naruto said with a smirk. Sai's expression didn't waver, as Naruto began to doubt all the emotion exercises he'd been giving him were worth it.

"Tsunade-sama said that if we need back up she would send the others, but in the mean time, if any other country found all of us passing through their country, especially you Naruto, Kakashi. Then they might think they're under attack or something, making this whole mission a lot more troublesome that it should be. I'm surprised that she's even letting you go, since it's the Akatsuki Sakura's being held by." Shikamaru said, Naruto looking more determined than ever.

"So it's settle then. As team leader I want every to understand that I want no casualties. If something is too dangerous don't take it, or don't handle it by yourself. We want to save Sakura, but we can't do that if we're dead. Don't take any unnecessary risks. Is that understood, Naruto, Neji, Hinata, Sai, Shikamaru, Lee?" Kakashi said in a commanding tone.

"Hai!" The nins said. "Then let-"

"Let's move out!" Naruto yelled heading off first. Kakashi and the others let out a sigh as they followed the blond nin.

_"Sakura-chan, we're coming. Just hang in there."_ Naruto thought as he followed Pakuun through the trees.

XXXXXXXX

**_"Please stay here with me...Or if you can't do that, take me with you..." Sakura said crying._**

**_"After all this time, you're still..." The figure turned around, but Sakura still couldn't see his face from the dark shadows his body was slowly being consumed it. "Annoying..."_**

Sakura's eyes slowly fluttered open, her eyes quickly adjusting to the dim lighted room she was in. _"What in the hell was that?"_ She felt as though she was still dreaming, her whole body was exhausted, and sore. She reached up to her forehead to check her temperature, she was noral as far as she could tell, then she realized her headband was missing. She stood up from the small bed she was laying on only to be gently set back down again.

"Ita-" but Sakura was silence when Itachi placed a pill into her mouth. She was going to spit it out to see what it was but he quickly held her chin with one hand, and with the other, poured some water into her mouth. She swallowed the pill before choking on the water.

"It's only a pain killer." Itachi said, seeing her concerned expression.

"You could have told be that before." Sakura said sitting up again.

"Would you have believed me if I did?" Itachi questioned, Sakura just looked towards the wall. "Hn."

"How long was I out?" Sakura asked feeling the blood rush to her head.

"Only about five hours. It was mainly due to the chakra exhaustion. You should have known what your limits were." Itachi said putting some pill bottles back into her medical pouch that laid on the table. _"What had almost caused her to gain her memories back?"_ Itachi thought as he took out the neccessary medications from multiple bottles.

"Where's Deidara and Kisame?" Sakura asked seeing that it was suprisingly quiet.

"They had separate missions, they should be back in three or four days at most." Itachi answered, taking new bandages from a cabinet. _"That means I'm alone with him."_ Sakura thought, a little nervous. Sakura checked the side of her stomach only to find the gash she received from the Hebi leader, bleeding again as her blood seeped through the fabric of her shirt. Itachi walked over to her and set the new bandage and other medicines next to her. Sakura was about to unwrap her bloodied bandage herself, but Itachi beat her to it as he started cutting the cloth with a kunai carefully.

"I can treat my own wounds, I am a medic nin." Sakura said, but Itachi ignored her as he continued to cut the old bandage off. She inwardly twitched in irritation, but Itachi seemed completely oblivious to her killer intent.

"You always have to have it your way, huh?" Sakura said, as Itachi trashed her used bandage in a nearby bin. He didn't answer as he silently treated her gash with gentleness that she didn't even know he possessed. From the six years she was forced to know him, he had never acted like this before. She couldn't recall any memory of him doing something so, so, nice...The only thing he ever showed any acknowledgement towards was when and after she treated his eyes, and even though that was the reason she was mainly here, he had not asked her to heal his eyes for weeks. If she wasn't just there to heal his eyes, why was she there then?

As he finished bandaging her wound, he silently stood up and put back the ointments and medicines into their original places. He then looked at her with his charcoal black eyes. Sakura felt a little uneasy under his gaze as he approached her once more.

"Do not try to heal yourself. You don't have the chakra to do it." Itachi warned.

"I think I knew that." Sakura said, in an annoyed tone. _"I'm a professional medic, who does he take me for? A trainee?" _She thought.

Itachi once again ignored her as he continued, "Nor do you have the chakra to escape."

_"Escape?"_ Sakura thought for a moment. Of course! It was the first time she was only being guarded by only one Akatsuki member! This was a perfect time to get the hell out of there, but out of all the people to be alone with, Itachi? Sakura cursed her luck. _"But why wasn't that the first thing to come to mind? Why didn't I think about escaping as soon as he mentioned that Deidara and Kisame were out? Wait, why did he tell me they were out? And why did he even tell me that they would take up to three or four days? It's like he's testing me, almost daring me to run away...why?" _Sakura couldn't understand this guy. _"He's as annoying as that guy I fought."_ That's when she remembered to ask about that person who somehow knew her.

"Itachi." Sakura began, he merely kept his gaze on her, which made her even more uncomfortable. "Do you have a younger brother or anyone-" but stopped when Itachi had both arms on the side of her head, on the wall. Her face was only mere inches away from his, as her glared at her.

"Where are you getting this from?" He asked, in a low dangerous voice.

"The guy I fought earlier said he was looking for you. He kind of looked like you, especially since he had the sharingan too. Did you know you still had a relative who was alive?" Sakura asked, knowing about the Uchiha massacre, but she didn't know that anyone but Itachi survived. Well of course since he was the one to kill them all.

"Forget about him." Itachi said.

"What?" Sakura asked confused.

"You shouldn't concern yourself with him." Itachi whispered into her ear. Sakura's body went rigid as his breath tickled the side of her neck.

"Wh-why are you doing this?" Sakura stuttered, trying took keep herself from blushing. Itachi looked back into her confused jade eyes with his onyx ones. He didn't answer her as he pushed himself away from her, and headed towards the door.

"Rest for now. I'll bring you dinner later on. We're going to train tomorrow in the afternoon after you heal your wounds." But before Sakura could ask why, he walked out the door.

_"Why doesn't he want me to think about that guy? I'm sure I know him from somewhere, but I just can't put my finger on it. Itachi has to know something, and I'm going to find out who he is no matter what."_ Sakura said, closing her eyes as sleep came over her once more.

XXXXXXXXX

"That's strange, her scent was split into two different directions. Both about a couple of hours old." Pakuun informed the leaf nins.

"Does that mean we have to split into two groups?" Hinata asked.

"That's our only choice." Sai said.

From high above the forest, Deidara watched the nins with the help of his gadget on his left eye with amusement. He watched as a group of three headed straight towards one trap, while the other four went straight to where he and Kisame were stationed. "They fell for it, yeah." Deidara smirked as he put away Sakura's red headband.

XXXXXXXXX

**AN: Alright! Another chapter done, yay! Sry if it seems a little run on, I'm suffering from a writers block currently, but don't worry, I'll try to update later this week. Anyways, like always, thank you for reading! Ja ne! XP**


	9. Coming and Going

**AN: I don't own Naruto…. **

**Chapter 8 –Coming and Going...**

XXXXXXXXXXXX

"How was Sakura-san's scent split in half?" Lee asked as he and two others went toward the South, while the others to the North.

"Even though I don't know how they were able to fool a nin dog's nose, that doesn't mean there isn't a way. I don't know how the Akatsuki was able to duplicate her scent, but most likely, one of our teams is heading straight for a trap, or both." Shikamaru said as he looked at both his teammates. _"If only Hokage-sama assigned Kiba as well."_ "In the worst case senario, this trap was made to get Naruto with less people."

Both Lee and Neji let out a small gasp as they thought more about the situation.

"First Sakura, and now Naruto seems most likely to being taken. Kakashi's team never ceases to cause more drama to our situations." Neji said.

"Shouldn't we head back and support Naruto-kun more?" Lee asked.

"You must remember that we're on a mission. If we turn back now, we might endanger the others if there is by chance that they are tracking us out of my byakugan's range." Neji said.

"That reminds me Neji, look ahead with your byakugan." Shikamaru said. Neji nodded as the veins around his eyes bulged against his skin. They continued to travel with their current speed for a couple of minutes in silence.

"No I don't see any-What?!" Neji said, his shocked expression clearly shown on his face.

"What is it Neji?!" Lee and Shikamaru said in unison.

"Out of all the times to...Was this the trap?..." Neji asked as he slowed down his pace.

"Who did you see?" Shikamaru asked.

"The traitor..." Neji replied, his hands balling into fists. "...Uchiha Sasuke."

XXXXXXXX

"Your ability in taijutsu still needs improvement." Itachi said as he kicked Sakura into another tree. Sakura just snorted. _"Maybe it's because you have the sharingan!" _She thought as she charged at Itachi once more.

Adding chakra to her feet, she quickly dodged Itachi's kunai, as she aimed a round house kick from behind him. Itachi simply caught her foot in mid air as he threw her to the side. As soon as Sakura landed onto the ground, her instincts told her to dodge to the side as a huge ball of fire came straight at her. Narrowly escaping the flames Sakura barely blocked another kick in the gut. She aimed a deadly punch straight to his face only to have it casually knocked to the side.

A giant crater lay to what Sakura wanted to be Itachi's face as she stood up once more. Testing her grip by flexing her fingers she concentrated chakra to her hands emitting a bluish glow. Aiming for his vital point Sakura dodged most of his attacks as she tried to get within closer range.

"Tell me Sakura, what do you fight for?" Itachi asked. The unexpected question made her lose concentration for a split second, giving Itachi a chance to get out of her range.

"I fight for Konoha. I fight for my friends, my comrades, my family!" Sakura said as she began to close their distance once more.

"Would they fight for you?" Itachi moved to the left, avoiding the blue chakra that consumed her fist.

"What kind of question is that? Of course!" Sakura said continuing her offense attacks.

"Then why have they seemed to abandon you?" Sakura gritted her teeth as she threw a reckless punch, only to miss Itachi and bring down a tree. "It's been about a month since our last meeting, and we've seen no signs of them since."

"Be quiet!" Sakura pulled her arm out of the demolished tree trunk and charged at Itachi.

"I would have at least expected Naruto-kun and Kakashi-san to come, since they were your teammates. They most likely consider the Kyuubi's safety over yours." Sakura was finally able to have Itachi on the receiving end of a kick as he flew straight to the ground, creating miniature fissure around him. He quickly got out of the way before he would receive another hit that was most likely fatal, considering the dark aura she now gave off.

"One, I know for sure that they would never abandon me. Two, I don't care if Naruto doesn't or can't come, because **I** value his safety more than my own. I could never forgive myself if he was captured by you soul-less bastards because of me!" Sakura said. She then saw him smirk, one of his rare sign of emotion. _"What the hell is he smirking about?"_

There it was, the chance she never thought would come. Itachi fell for one of her fake kicks as he jumped into the air. Quickly she targeted his left lung as she aimed to at least graze him with her chakra. She cursed under her breath to find that she missed the initial area, but she was able to cut the muscles in his arm, right above the elbow. If she wasn't an expert medic she would have never thought that any of her attacks had actually taken affect on his body, seeing that he showed absolutely no signs of it. Before Sakura could go in for another round, Itachi told her that the morning training was over.

"It seems that you are much more efficient as a shinobi when I insult those leaf nins. I suggest that you learn to harness that boost of strength during the entire battle from now on." Itachi said staring into her eyes. She was used to the same pattern of genjutsus he tortured he with over the years. She almost now never feared his eyes, except when they turned to that pin wheel shape.

"Most of my strength, the reason why I have it, is because of them." Sakura said with pride.

"So without them, you become weak and useless. That is why emotions should be eliminated in the life of a shinobi."

"That's not true. Emotions, feelings make you stronger. It's proof that you have a reason to be strong, and a reason to live."

"All emotions are burdens. Those who can't control or destroy their own emotions are burdens as well." Itachi said, Sakura glaring at him for his opinion.

"Then that means I'm a burden to you. If I'm such a burden, why are you keeping me here? To heal those eyes? Is that all? Because that was all for the last six years." Sakura said in an angry tone, as the two looked at one another. A few minutes passed, and yet they continued to stare at one another. Sakura's frustration built as she failed to read the Uchiha for the thousandth time.

Sakura let out a sigh as she started to heal her major wounds. "You need to train on your stamina, and taijutsu much more." Itachi said, bringing him her full attention. "You've improved greatly over the years, but it's still not enough to meet today's standards. Everything else is satisfactory though. From now on, we'll work on your weak points every morning and afternoon."

Sakura just 'hmphed' as she continued healing. Then it hit her, Itachi just complimented her on her shinobi skills! Plus he's offering, _more like forcing_, her to train under him! _"What the hell's up with the sudden change? Why is he being so nice now? No, no that's not it...Uhhh, so non-Itachi like! Ahhh, there we go."_ Sakura thought as she finished healing herself.

"We've only been here for a couple of hours, I'm sure you have a good supply of chakra left." Itachi asked in his usual monotonous voice. Sakura was pretty damn tired but nonetheless she just nodded, wondering what he was trying to get at. "Good. It's been a while since you treated my eyes. I'll see you in the medical wing in a half an hour." Before she could even protest, he vanished inside the building.

"Che, flattering me and then forcing me to betray my village. That bastard." Sakura said with a sad smile. She could try to escape now, it was only Itachi after all...But then she thought, "That's just it. It's Itachi. I'm still not strong enough to escape from him, and the Akatsuki. Naruto, Kakashi, Sai, everyone..." Sakura just closed her eyes as she looked to the sky. "It's been more than six years, and I'm still weak. It's been over nine years since I decided to change. What happened? Why am I still so far behind?" Sakura saw three birds fly above her. One flew down and landed on a branch in the closest tree to her, while the other two continued on their way to who knows where, leaving their flying companion behind.

"Even that strange person I fought with the sharingan, like Itachi's, was able to make me call for help. Always calling, or needing help. Naruto...I don't want to rely on you so much anymore. I don't want your help, but this time, even if I needed it, I can't have it no matter what because it might end up in getting you killed for sure. Please Naruto, if Tsunade sends a team after me, don't be in it. Just stay safe, no matter what." Sakura muttered as she entered the building. "I wish I could just run away, but he'll find me." She bit her bottom lip as she looked back at the closing door. _"Why aren't I even __trying__ to run away? Am I that afraid, or is it that I want to st-"_ but she shook her thoughts away, not wanting to even think of what she might have felt that very moment. As she heard the soft 'click' of the door closing, she knew that she skipped out on another chance to escape...To get away from him.

XXXXXXXXX

"What the hell is this?! Why the hell are you two here?!" Naruto growled out, glaring at the two Akatsuki members. Fangs were starting to emerge as his eyes glowed a dangerous red.

"N-Naruto-kun?" Hinata stuttered, scared of the dark aura he was emitting.

"Naruto control yourself!" Kakashi warned as he lifted his headband above his left eye. _"How did they fool Pakuun's nose?"_

"I suppose Neji and the others are facing another trap as well." Sai said with a smile, taking out a blank scroll.

"Nice seeing you too, yeah." Deidara said with a smirk.

"Finally, I get to fight some real opponents." Kisame said unwrapping his samehada.

"Where's Sakura-chan you bastards?!" Naruto growled out, his nails becoming more claw-like.

"She's doing fine actually, though I can't be sure now that only Itachi's with her, un." Deidara said smiling at the leaf nins expressions.

"Hn. Tobi should be done leading the other leaf brats by now, ne?" Kisame said, gripping his sword in anticipation

"Remember, we're just here to stall them, yeah." Deidara said, each hand already chewing on some exploding clay.

XXXXXXX

"It's been a while, Uchiha." Neji said glaring at Sasuke and his group.

"Hn." Sasuke said, his face void of any emotion.

"It seems that you're pretty popular around here." Suigetsu said, gripping his sword.

"I suppose I can go now." Tobi said to himself as he looked at the two groups of nins through the bushes. He quickly tucked in the piece of cloth from Sakura's headband in his pocket before departing into the forest to their other hideout in Cloud.

"One, three, four." Neji muttered to Shikamaru. Sasuke narrowed his eyes, reading the Hyuuga lips.

_"What do those numbers mean?"_ He thought seeing Shikamaru and Lee nod.

_"One spy, left three seconds ago, in the four o' clock direction."_ Shikamaru thought.

"Don't take them likely, the one with white eyes has a high chakra reading." Karin said shifting her glasses upwards.

_"So she's the person with strong chakra senses from before_." Shikamaru thought, recalling their last mission to retrieve Sasuke six years back.

"There's no point in fighting them, is there?" Juugo asked, not wanting to engage in battle.

"Actually, there is. You, Uchiha Sasuke, are wanted as a missing nin." Neji said activating his byakugan.

"You will pay for hurting Sakura-san and Naruto-kun!" Lee said getting into his fighting stance. Sasuke activated his sharingan, as Suigetsu took his sword from his back; Karin shifted her glasses once more.

"Stop, all of you before you make this mission more troublesome." Shikamaru said approaching the head of his group.

"Sasuke, we might actually be able to help one another." Shikamaru began. Sasuke didn't show any sign that he was interested, but Shikamaru continued anyway. "I know you're looking for Itachi, and it happens that we're looking for Sakura was taken by him." At this the leaf nins expected at least some kind of reaction from the stonic Uchiha, but he gave no such reaction.

"I know." Was all Sasuke said earning a few confused looks.

"You don't care that she's been taken captive by your brother?!" Lee asked, not understanding how he wouldn't even care about his ex-teammate's predicament.

"Why should I? I have no bonds with you all anymore. They have long since died during these years. I've told those idiots countless times to stop trying to bring me back."

"How can you say that?!" Neji said with rage. "After all their suffering and effort to bring you home! Do you know how much pain they've gone through?!"

"Excuse me! Why would Sasuke care? Didn't he just tell you that he told them to stop it?" Karin said with a know-it-all tone. "So it's their fault for the _pain_ they're going through."

"Excuse me, but we're not talking to you. Also, you don't know our history, so stop yourself the next time you want to interrupt." Shikamaru said ignoring the red head's glare.

"Che, even they think you're annoying Karin." Suigetsu said. "Well anyways, that girl, Sakura right? She didn't seem like she was in _pain_. She seemed more like a regular Akatsuki member to me, when we found her shopping for them, and she didn't even remember Sasuke here when she fought him." Suigetsu said putting his hand on the Uchiha's shoulder, smiling.

"What?!" All three of the leaf nins said in unison.

"Then that mustn't have been our Sakura-san!" Lee said with determination.

"Shikamaru, you were with the Akatsuki with Sakura before. Could you explain this?" Neji asked.

"I'll think on it, but first thing's first." Sahikamaru said directing his attention at Sasuke. "How about we make a deal?" Hebi looked at him confused, not knowing what he could possibly offer them. "All we want is to get Sakura back, nothing to do with your brother whatsoever. If you help us find Sakura, then we'll leave you to your brother and we'll help in getting the other members out of your way. I've been in the Akatsuki for six years, and I know how they fight almost inside and out." Shikamaru said. Both Neji and Lee looked at each other before looking at Shikamaru with uncertainty.

"Where's the rest of your group? I know that dobe should be around here somewhere. He wouldn't stay back in this kind of mission." Sasuke said.

"Funny how you know him so well." Neji said. "He as well as the rest of our team are somewhere else. They'll meet us shortly, but there is no reason to tell you their location, since it has no significance to you."

"How about I also guarantee that we won't have Naruto, or any of us force you back to Konoha?" Shikamaru asked. Neji narrowed his eyes, questioning Shikamaru's plan.

"Hmph. Like you can really stop that dobe from keeping that pathetic promise of his." Sasuke said.

"We can, and if that isn't enough for you, think about this. Right now, his main concern is getting Sakura home safely. I'm sure he won't endanger her rescue to get you."

A couple of minutes passed before Sasuke spoke. "Alright, but if he, or any of you even attempt to fight me. I won't hesitate to kill you." Sasuke said, emitting a murderous aura.

Shikamaru just nodded, as well as Neji and Lee.

"Karin, lead the way." Sasuke ordered.

"Ok, I got it." Karin said before heading towards to where Tobi last headed off too.

Hebi lead as the leaf nins followed.

"Shikamaru, are you sure you know what you're doing? We could have turned back when I saw both Hebi and that Akatsuki member, Tobi, heading in our general direction." Neji said.

"Then we could have just followed Tobi to the base." Lee said.

"But he wouldn't have gone to where Naruto and the rest are until he saw our groups together. It was his objective. It was lucky for us that he's an idiot and didn't wait to see us start fighting before departing." Shikamaru said.

"But how are we going to stop Naruto-kun, or even Kakashi from fighting Sasuke?" Lee asked.

"We won't." Shikamaru said.

"So you could tell that he was lying as well, and that Karin is leading us straight to where Tobi's heading, and not to where the real hideout is?" Neji said.

"No, I didn't know. I just don't trust him at all." Shikamaru said.

"How did you know all this? Was that deal with Hebi part of the plan you told us when Neji first mentioned seeing Sasuke?" Lee asked.

"Yes, and thank kami none of you mentioned Tobi, or Naruto's group's whereabouts. Since I was one of the Akatsuki's main strategist, the showed me some of their most secluded hideouts. Luckily I remembered there were two in Cloud. So since they made the trouble of making our group split up in half, that most likely means they're moving to another hideout." Shikamaru said jumping from tree branch to tree branch.

"How far are the hideouts apart?" Lee asked.

"Two to three days."

"So we have to travel with them for that long?" Lee said.

"No, we first have to regroup with Naruto and the rest." Neji said.

"Which will cause more problems." Shikamaru said, getting a headache at the thought.

"Also, what did Uchiha's companion mean when he said Sakura didn't even remember him?" Neji asked. "That couldn't possibly be Sakura."

"Unless something happened to her! We must hurry and find out what has happened to her! I, Rock Lee can not allow a flower like Sakura-san to be-" but Shikamaru and Neji both tuned Lee's upcoming speech out as they planned what to do when they met up with Naruto and the rest.

"This mission has become much more troublesome than its suppose to be." Shikamaru said sighing.

XXXXXXX

"Your eye sight should be almost perfect now." Sakura said in a low as she kept her eyes down and removed her hands away from Itachi's eyes. She walked away from the bed and headed toward the door almost exhausted.

"Pack light, we'll be leaving in ten minutes." Itachi said as he stood up from the bed and grabbed his cloak off a nearby chair. Sakura turned around and looked at him like he was crazy. She was in no condition to travel, and knowing Itachi, it would be for a couple of days. Itachi began to head toward the door, as Sakura turned her back on him getting her pre-packed bag out of a cabinet and onto the counter. Sakura ignored the fact that he was standing right behind her.

_"Probably thinking I might pack some kind of poison again. Is the great Itachi scarred of what I might pack?"_ She thought with a smirk. The smirk quickly left her face as Itachi wrapped his arms around her waist. Sakura dropped some bottles as she froze stiff.

"Thank you...Sakura." Itachi said, his breath brushing past her left ear. Sakura spine shivered at each word. _"No not again! Move you idiot!"_ Sakura yelled at herself in her mind.

_**"You're welcome." Sakura muttered sarcastically, as she started walking back into the forest. **__**"What a j-" **__**but Sakura's thoughts were cut off when Itachi placed both his hands on her shoulders.**_

"_**W-what are you-"**_

"_**Thank you…Sakura."**_

_"Why the heck would I remember that now?!" _Sakura thought, mentally smacking herself. Itachi released his hold on her, smirking at the act that she made no attempt to break away. Sakura didn't even notice him letting her go until she heard him, 'hmph'. She turned around to see him still smirking. She glared at him for multiple reasons, hating the fact that he was being amused by her. Itachi ignored her look as he passed by her and exited the medical room. Sakura just stomped to her room, as she grabbed her pre-packed medical bag off the counter.

At the front entrance of the hideout, Sakura found Itachi waiting for her. Sakura glared as she walked up to his side.

"Are Deidara, Kisame, or Tobi there, or can you at least tell me where we're headed?" She asked shifting the pack to a more comfortable position.

"No." was all Itachi said before heading forward into the forest, the sun beginning to set.

"Bastard." Sakura muttered under her breath. _"I'll probably die during this trip."_ Sakura thought as she sprinted forward to catch up with the Uchiha. After about a half an hour, it was easy to see that Sakura was too tired to move on. Itachi led up on his speed as he ran side by side with the kunoichi.

"You're moving to slow." Itachi said, stating to obvious. Sakura wanted to punch him off the branch.

"Well I spent the entire morning sparring with you, spent the entire afternoon wasting my chakra helping you, and I couldn't eat anything this whole day because of you. I think I deserve a break since it's because of you I'm too damn exhausted to travel." Sakura said breathing heavily as she continued to skip along the branches.

"We really do have to build up your stamina." Itachi said.

"I'm sorry I'm not an Akatsuki member like you, who apparently have endless stamina!" Sakura said sarcastically. "Why don't you try using perfect chakra control all day and being a medic nin? No wonder you don't have many members or even a medic!"

_"Not yet."_ Itachi thought before stopping both Sakura and himself.

"Why did we sto-What are you doing?!" Sakura said as Itachi scooped her up with one arm under her knees and the other on her back.

"Put me down!" Sakura demanded, but her words were said to death ears as Itachi sped forward. He kept her close to his chest, to keep a good grip on her. She knew her protests wouldn't make a difference in his decision to carry her. She blushed slightly from being so close to his chest, she could hear his surprisingly calm heartbeat. She didn't want to admit it, but she felt somewhat relaxed and even, may she dare consider it, safe with him as they traveled through the forest in silence.

XXXXXXX

**AN:** Sry for the late update! I went on vacation and forgot to bring my labtop's charger! I smacked myself silly after being able to type for ten minutes before having the damn battery die on me. Gomen everyone! T.T I know the quality of this storyline has gone down, and I didn't even leave a cliffhanger, but I'm losing inspiration for it a lot, but I'll try to keep it up! Anyways, thank you for waiting and reading! Ja ne!


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